ISS 2012: For feldts
Title: Work and Play
Pairing/Focus: Woohyun/Sungjong
Rating: PG
Word count: 6,900~ words
Summary: Sungjong liked to keep his professional and private lives separate. A concept that Woohyun had a hard time understanding.
To: FELDTS
From: Your Secret Santa
Lee Sungjong liked to keep his personal and professional lives separate. It was a habit stemming from his time in university, after an unfortunate incident involving the TA of his most important class freshman year being the guy he accidentally made out with at a party and accidentally blew off the following day because he didn't recognize him outside of his drunken stupor. After that he swore off any sort of interaction with people at school, instead putting all of his focus on his studies and end of semester portfolios.
The school-focused life was a lonely life, for sure, but had its own rewards in year after year Dean's List placements and time to marathon horror movies without any commitments to inane things such as a social life. This carried over after graduation, when Sungjong was searching for a new job. With his high grades, exceptional portfolio, and raving compliments from his professors and peers (despite being fully committed to the loner life, he still had several social obligations in the form of being courteous to classmates), any sort of career was open to him, but it was one online ad in particular that he was determined to apply for.
It was a highly sought-after intern position at one of Seoul's leading graphic design firms. Sungjong busted his ass on his portfolio and cover letter, hardly sleeping in what he could describe as the most painful two weeks of his life. The phone call finally came a few days after he had dropped everything off, as he sat bleary-eyed and exhausted in a Starbucks in Hongdae, trying to piece together what remained of his soul with vanilla lattes and free wi-fi.
Sungjong's first day of work goes about as well as he expected. His boss wasn't too much older than him, and was kind in a fatherly sort of way, helping Sungjong get accustomed to the fast-paced nature of the office and offering to give him advice whenever he asked. One of his new coworkers later pulled him aside after he finished speaking to the older man. "Don't get too comfortable," the young man said. "He's pulling the nice guy act now 'cuz you're new, but when it comes to business--BLAM! he turns into a right dick awful fast."
"Sungyeollie, he only does that to you because you're always pushing your deadlines." Another employee, Sungjong remembered his name being Myungsoo, spoke up as he walked by, overhearing the conversation. Sungyeol rolled his eyes at the newcomer and crossed his arms, puffing his cheeks out dramatically. Myungsoo ignored the show and turned to Sungjong, an apologetic smile on his face. "Pay no attention to this kid; he's just mad that Sunggyu-sajangnim won't recognize his 'artistic vision'." Myungsoo punctuated the last two words with air quotations. Sungjong chuckled, smiling into the back of his hand. "I can imagine."
"Just don't get on his bad side like this loser does on a daily basis and I think you'll be fine, he likes you enough."
Sungyeol turned back to the two younger men and gave them both a withering glare.
"But hey, Sungjong-ssi?"
Sungjong stopped and turned, and saw that Sungyeol hadn't walked off yet. "I'm just gonna warn you now, because you're new and I like you and I don't wanna see you get hurt but..." Sungyeol trailed off, biting his lip. Sungjong looked at him quizzically. "Don't get involved with Nam Woohyun."
A look of confusion crossed over Sungjong's face and he looked around the office, trying to remember if he had met someone named Woohyun earlier. "Ah, he called in sick today," Sungyeol said, waving his hands. "But I'm serious. He's got a bit of a reputation of trying to get in with the newbies. Flirts with them. A lot. Has probably slept with half the office by now. Well, when most of them were still here..."
Sungjong raised an eyebrow. "Most...?"
The taller man's cheeks flushed slightly. "Never mind that part," he continued. "Just. Ignore him. He'll get bored and move on eventually. Maybe."
Sungjong was less than reassured by this flimsy plan. "I'll... keep that in mind." He paused as he took in Sungyeol's uncomfortable state. It seemed this wasn't the first time he's had to issue this warning. "Thanks, Sungyeol-ssi."
He waved goodbye and turned and walked towards the front door, suddenly feeling not so great. I guess we'll see what this Nam Woohyun guy is like tomorrow.
Tuesday morning arrived without much fanfare, and Sungjong arrived to work a few minutes early after stopping by the coffee shop downstairs to pick up a carrot muffin and coffee for breakfast. Setting it down on his desk, he began to unbutton his coat when footsteps from right behind him startled him out of his activity.
He turned around to face the source of the noise, and came face to face with an unrecognizable person he assumed to be this Woohyun guy he was warned about. He wasn't tall--Sungjong was taller by several centimetres--with dark brown hair that was pushed up off his face with gel and a straight nose. Any other features Sungjong might have been able to take in were lost in the very distracting smile that Woohyun was giving him.
"You must be the new intern," Woohyun said, holding out a hand. Sungjong took it and shook it cautiously. "I'm Woohyun."
The words flew out of Sungjong's mouth before he could stop them.
"I know."
Woohyun's mouth formed an "o" and his eyebrows rose slightly. "You know."
Sungjong wanted to smack himself. "You weren't the only person here yesterday, and so I just put two and two together," he said quickly, clinging to the first excuse that came to mind. It wasn't entirely false, either.
"Uh huh."
Not letting go of Sungjong's hand, Woohyun leaned in closer so his face was less than a foot from the younger man's, a glint in his eyes. "Well, if you need any more help around the office." That smile again. "Just let me know. I'm always happy to help."
At that point, Sungjong let go and backed away, frowning at the shorter man. "I think I'll be fine, thanks," he said, making sure the discontent he was feeling was present in his voice. Woohyun didn't appear to be fazed by this, and kept on grinning.
"Okay, okay," he said, retreating from the enclosed space and back into the hallway that divided the rows of cubicles. "My offer still stands anyways."
And with that he disappeared, leaving a very confused and unimpressed Sungjong.
It was Thursday after lunch when the first note appeared. Sungjong had come back to his cubicle and was about to sit in his chair when he caught the bright pink sticky note out of the corner of his eye. He reached over to his monitor where it had been stuck and yanked it off to look at it more closely. Two words were written on it in a lazy hand, followed by what looked like a messy attempt at a smiley face:
"hey cutie~ ;)"
Sungjong squinted at the note. He slowly stood up and looked around the rest of the office. Most people had come back from lunch before him, so any of his coworkers could have been the culprit. Any, that is, if it weren't for one Nam Woohyun that was lazily hanging over the walls of his cubicle staring right at him with a smirk on his face.
If Sungjong was giving him a look that would suggest displeasure, it was not reflected in Woohyun's face as he broke into a smile and nodded at the note that was still pinched between the younger's fingers. Sungjong looked back at the note, messy handwriting and all, before glancing back up to find that Woohyun's head had disappeared. All he could do was stare incredulously at the spot where Woohyun had been. He frowned, and dropped into his chair, flipping the sticky note into the waste basket next to his desk.
Just remember what Sungyeol-ssi said, he thought to himself, quickly busying himself with staring at the spreadsheet on the screen in front of him. Because he was just an intern, Sunggyu had started him out on handling some of the backlog that had begun to build up due to employing an office of creative minds that hated to do paperwork. What Sunggyu had neglected to mention was that it was about two yearsí worth, so Sungjong had been left with a pile of USB flash drives on his desk collected from about twenty employees who had purposefully put off the work until a new intern was hired to do it for them. Sungjong couldn't entirely fault them; after all, paperwork was boring and a pain in the ass, but still. Dicks.
Sungjong expected a follow-up to the sticky note at some point that afternoon, but either Woohyun had completely forgotten about it or was waiting for a better opportunity to corner the poor intern. As soon as the clock hit five, Woohyun had seemingly vanished from the office, making Sungjong wonder if he actively camped next to the door at five minutes to, just so he could leave right away.
Over the next week and a half, Sungjong experienced the same thing every single day. After lunch ended, he would find a colourful note with a few hastily-scribbled flirty words stuck to his monitor, followed by a charming smile from across the room, with the culprit fleeing the scene once the work day ended. Sungjong was frustrated, not only because the notes were annoying, but also because holy mixed signals. He made it a point to eventually ask Sungyeol if this was normal behavior from Woohyun, given that he was warned about an obvious flirt, not someone who looked like he was playing hard middle school hard-to-get.
The follow-up finally came after three full weeks of not-so-anonymous note-leaving. This time Sungjong found a neon green sticky note perched on top of a carrot muffin that was sitting his desk when he arrived first thing in the morning. He looked blankly at it for a minute, confused because his breakfast was in his right hand, and how did it get on the desk if he was still holding it. Then the brightly coloured paper caught his eye, and he snapped out of his sleep-induced daze to lean forward and scrutinize it.
"thought you might be hungry~ gotta keep our interns happy!! =_="
This time Sungjong shot upright, to scan the tops of the cubicles to find Nam Woohyun's head so he could throw the muffin and note back at his stupid, handsome face, but instead he tripped and fell backwards into his chair as he was met with Woohyun staring at him from the wall behind his desk. Woohyun broke into a grin as he grabbed Sungjong's right arm before the young intern was completely at gravity's mercy.
"Woah, I didn't expect you to fall for me that fast," Woohyun said, steadying Sungjong as he detangled his feet from the wheels of his chair and righted himself. It took every amount of willpower in Sungjong's body not to smash the now-crushed muffin in his hand into the other's smarmy grin because he did not just hear those words come out of Woohyun's mouth. "Wow," Sungjong deadpanned, placing the squashed food (thank god it was wrapped in plastic) on his desk next to the whole muffin, and avoiding eye contact with the older man. "Do you use that line on all your potential sexual prospects?"
Woohyun let go of Sungjong's arm and raised his hands defensively. "Hey, I was just making a joke." Sungjong looked up, not surprised to see that the blinding grin on Woohyun's face hadn't faltered the slightest. "Uh huh," he retorted, blowing the hair that had fallen into his eyes from the stumble out of his face. "And I'm sure the write and dash you've been pulling the past few weeks was just a joke too."
Does this guy ever stop smiling? Sungjong thought, as his (what he thought anyways) biting words failed to make an impact on the seemingly permanent display of pearly whites Woohyun was giving him.
"The direct approach obviously wasn't going to work," Woohyun said, Sungjong assuming he was referring to their first encounter. "So I had to come up with a more subtle way to finally talk to you. Worked, didn't it?"
Sungjong opened his mouth to shoot back but paused when he realized Woohyun was right, it had worked. They were talking after all. He crossed and uncrossed his arms, at a loss for words.
"Well then what do you want?" he said, finally finding something to say, as lame as it was. Woohyun leaned his elbows on the top of the wall, resting his head on his arms.
"I want to take you out for dinner."
Sungjong almost guffawed. "Are you serious?" he angrily whispered, not wanting to shout as it was still the early morning. "You went through all that trouble just to ask me out on a date?"
Woohyun didn't move. "One hundred percent serious," he said, straight faced. This was the first time the grin had left his face, and Sungjong was actually able to take notice of just how attractive he was. No wonder he had guys and girls falling for him all the time.
Sungjong placed a single finger to his lips as he contemplated the offer. Normally it would be a flat out "no" right away, but something about how Woohyun was asking was making him reconsider his policy. "So you know that I know about your reputation, right?" Sungjong asked, feeling like it was a stupid question but had to be asked regardless.
"If you didn't I'd be questioning the effectiveness of how quickly gossip gets spread around this office, of course I know you know." Woohyun didn't sound annoyed, surprisingly to Sungjong, so the intern decided to question further.
"So why are you even bothering?"
Sungjong didn't expect much of an answer, much past "because I think you're hot" or one of the various other flirty compliments he received in sticky note form over the past few weeks. So when Woohyun answered, he felt honestly surprised.
"Because I'm genuinely interested in you," the older man said, tilting his head back and forth on his arms. The straight face still hadn't left, and Sungjong was beginning to think this guy was legitimate in his feelings.
"I mean, if you say no I'm not going to get hurt feelings or anything because I'd expect it, but I do think you're cute and I like how you act so--"
"Sure."
It was Woohyun's turn to be surprised. "Seriously?" he asked, completely straightening up so he was level with Sungjong's height again, his mouth dropping open.
Sungjong surprised himself with his answer as well. "Uh yeah," he said, face reddening. He was acting like his old pre-college self, what was the matter with him. "I guess."
Immediately Woohyun reverted back to his charming self. "Great!" he said, grabbing a pad of sticky notes and a pen and started to jot down a bunch of information. He ripped the top sheet off and stuck it to Sungjong's monitor. "Here's the restaurant, I made a reservation for seven on Friday night. My phone number is there too just in case."
Sungjong stared at it, dumbfounded. "You had...a reservation..." he muttered, feeling like he had just gotten horribly pranked.
"Never can be too prepared!" Woohyun replied, winking at him cheekily. "I'll see you there on Friday."
He waved and leapt off the desk he was perched on this entire time, disappearing into his own cubicle before Sungjong could say another word. Whatever good feeling Sungjong had about this situation had vanished entirely, and he scowled at the sticky note (highlighter yellow this time) as he sat in his chair.
A sudden growl from his stomach reminded him that he hadn't eaten yet, and Sungjong was reminded of his now-crushed muffin. Groaning, he face planted his head into the desk. As he turned it sideways to lie down, he saw the muffin that Woohyun had bought for him, note and all, out of the corner of his eye. He glared at it, before reluctantly picking it up and peeling the plastic off. At least Woohyun was good for something.
"You're kidding?!"
Sungjong raised a hand to block the onslaught of half-chewed food that came rocketing out of Sungyeol's mouth at his outburst. The older designer had invited him out for lunch on the apparent grounds of 'Myungsoo ditched me because he's a butt', which Sungjong eventually realized meant, 'Myungsoo had extra work to do that needed to be done over lunch'. He wiped the food off his hand onto the rumpled napkin next to his plate, before calmly replying. "No, I'm not. Nam Woohyun really did ask me out because he is 'genuinely interested' in me."
Sungyeol slowly closed his mouth and swallowed what food remained in it. Jabbing his fork in Sungjong's direction, he narrowed his eyes and said darkly, "So you said no, right?"
"..."
"Right?"
"Well..."
"Arrrrrghhhhhhhhhhh!" Sungyeol groaned loud enough for the two businesswomen the table over to turn and shoot him a dirty glare, to which he responded by sticking out a food-covered tongue. "You are so mature," Sungjong said, amused by the disgusted reactions it provoked from the women, but quickly silenced himself as Sungyeol's ensuing rant steamrolled over his words.
"I tooooolllld you to ignore him. Why didn't you listen to meeeee? Now he's going to take advantage of your fragile heart and crush all of your hopes and dreams into itty bitty pieces, along with your soul and you will NEVER love another human the same way AGAIN!"
A small smile tugged at the corner of Sungjong's mouth as Sungyeol paused to catch his breath. If there was one thing Sungyeol could be counted on, it was melodrama. "This sounds awfully like words coming from experience," he said, as Sungyeol's eyes widened and red began to creep up his face.
"N-no!" Sungyeol said shrilly, sitting unnaturally upright and crossing his arms. "This is all just from hearsay! And I'm totally not warning you again because Woohyun is a heartbreaking jerk!" He finished this sentence with a pout, glaring menacingly at the light fixture next to their table.
Sungjong laughed, head bent downwards so only his shaking shoulders are seen. Somehow this doesn't surprise him. When he comes back up for air, Sungyeol is still having an indignant staring contest with an inanimate object, so he speaks. "Actually, I'm kind of interested too," he says, picking up his fork and pushing what's left of his meal around his plate absently. Reluctantly interested, really. Despite all common sense he had about not getting into any kind of relationship with his fellow employees, there was something about Woohyun he found oddly charming. When there is no answer from the other man, he pushed on.
"I dunno, there just seems like something more to him than sleeping around. I think he's really looking for a meaningful relationship, and just hasn't found the right person yet."
Sungyeol scoffed at this. "And you think that somehow, you're the one? Lee Sungjong I never took you for the romantic type."
"Well...no..." Sungjong trailed off. He rested his elbows on the table and his chin in his hands. "But you have to admit, the note thing is pretty weird."
Sungyeol sighed and mirrored Sungjong's pose, right down to the furrowed brow in confusion. "Yeah, you've got point there," he said, chewing on his bottom lip. "Normally he's more upfront about these things--and hey, that's also just from observation, not a personal account. But he's never been so sneaky about wanting to talk to someone. Maybe he /does/ like you that much."
He smirked. "Who'd've thunk, Nam Woohyun actually has feelings beneath that cold, hard, muscle-y surface. I think I have a tear in my eye," Sungyeol mused, as he made dramatic motions to wipe at nonexistent tears with a single finger. Sungjong laughed again; but this time softer. He really wanted to know why Woohyun was treating him so differently, if by all accounts he was a womanizing (man-nizing? Sungjong had no idea what the right word would be) fiend. At the same time, what caused him to become like that in the first place? Sungjong must have looked pensive to Sungyeol, because the latter poked his forearm and smiled a gummy smile at the younger man when he looked up. "Hey, I'm sure it'll be fine. There's gotta be a good reason he's giving you the V-I-P treatment."
Sungyeol stood from his chair and fished into his pockets, pulling out several bills and some loose change to pay for the meal. "Oh no, you don't have to," Sungjong started to protest, standing as well, but Sungyeol laughed and waved his hands at the younger. "Don't worry about it, I'm the hyung right? Besides, it's the least I can do for projecting all my-er, other people's horror stories onto your romance." A grin broke on Sungjong's face at Sungyeol's slip-up, to which the latter playfully shoved his arm.
"Hey, at least I can say I told you so if it all goes up in flames at the end," the tall man shot, holding the door of the bistro where they just had lunch to let Sungjong pass through. "How tactful of you," Sungjong said, still grinning. "Are you always so comforting towards your friends?"
"They keep me around, don't they?"
"For comedic relief no doubt."
Sungyeol playfully swung an arm around Sungjong's shoulders. "I knew I was right about liking you," he said. He pulled his phone out of his left pocket to check the time. "Hey, we've got fifteen minutes before we gotta be back at work. Wanna go bug Myungsoo?"
Sungjong covered his mouth as he laughed. "He going to kill you," he said. Sungyeol gasped in mock horror. "Me?!" he wailed, looking scandalized. "You'd throw me under the bus so easily?!"
"This implies I went along with your idea in the first place." Sungjong replied, smiling widely.
The two bantered back and forth the entire walk back, and Sungjong for the first time felt comfortable since starting this job. His self-determination in not getting involved with coworkers was stifling, and so breaking his own rules seemed worth it. Truthfully, given the types of people that worked here, it was probably inevitable. And so maybe, just maybe, this Woohyun thing was worth trying out. He might as well.
Friday evening rolled around and any sort of comfort Sungjong may have felt about going through with this date quickly dematerialized and was replaced by anxiety. He chewed his thumbnail, shooting glances at his phone to make sure that yes, it was already 7:30, and Woohyun was late. He had Woohyun's number, so he could just as easily call him, but he hesitated out of fear of giving this "date" legitimacy. Tapping his foot faster as each minute passed, Sungjong looked at his phone again. 7:40. I'm giving him five more minutes. Five more minutes before I just walk away and forget this whole thing ha-
"Hey, sorry I'm late!" Sungjong spun around to see a slighly disheveled Woohyun looking apologetically at him. He frowned. "Late's a bit of an understatement," he mumbled, not caring if Woohyun heard him. If Woohyun did, he made no show of it, as he looped an arm under one of Sungjong's loosely crossed ones, smiling that ever blinding smile. "Gyu caught me before I left work and I had to stay an extra hour to work on something for a last-minute client. I would've texted but I didn't have your number."
Sungjong's frown softened at Woohyun's tone--it really did sound like he was sorry. It was true he didn't give Woohyun his number, out of not wanting to commit entirely to this idea in the first place. He kind of felt bad, actually. Sungjong also didn't miss how Woohyun so casually referred to their boss. He knew the two had been there the longest, and had a bit of a rivalry; Woohyun had actually turned down the manager position out of not wanting to deal with the extra responsibility (this bit of backstory courtesy of Sungyeol's loud mouth). But still, even knowing someone that long didn't give someone the right to refer to them so informally, especially with someone so rigid like Sunggyu. A thought lingered at the back of Sungjong's mind that perhaps the two had some sort of thing in the past, but he quickly buried it as Woohyun ferried him into the restaurant.
Despite being almost an hour late to their reservation and it being the middle of dinner service, it only took a few winks and a smile (that charming smile again) before the dazed hostess led the two men to a table at the back. "Do you drink?" Woohyun asked Sungjong, as a waitress came up to their table to take their orders. "Ah n-no, not really. Water is good," Sungjong stuttered. He never stuttered. Why was he so damn nervous?
"Then water is fine for both of us," Woohyun said to the server, who whisked off to let them decide on food. Woohyun smirked over the top of his menu at the fidgeting Sungjong. "You'd think you were a high school girl on her first date or something, what's up?" he asked, his voice joking but soft. Sungjong cringed. Was he really that bad? "Actually, would you believe me if I said I hadn't dated since high school?" he replied, embarrassed that his nervousness was that apparent.
"No way." Woohyun's eyes grew wide. "You? I don't believe that at all, you're too cute to have stayed single."
"It's true," Sungjong laughed, relaxing somewhat. "I wanted to focus on school so I didn't really interact with people. Didn't have many friends either because of it."
"Wow," Woohyun whistled, tipping back his chair. "No wonder you were giving me the cold shoulder."
Sungjong picked up his glass of water and sipped at it, a small smile forming at the corner of his lips. "And what about you, Mr. Flirt?" he asked, setting it down and playing with the stem of the glass. "You now know about my lack of love life, so it's only fair you tell me about your torrid one."
Woohyun grimaced, a comical look on his handsome features. "You've been hanging out with Sungyeol, haven't you?" Sungjong actually broke into a smile at this point and laughed softly, before replying, "So is any of it true?"
The older man paused at this point, and a flash of something cross his eyes that made Sungjong freeze. Maybe he had crossed a line. He was about to apologize, when Woohyun spoke. "Yeah," he said, his voice quiet. "Mostly."
Sungjong opened his mouth to question the mostly part, when a figure suddenly entered the corner of his sight. Thinking it was the server come back to take their order, he turned to tell her to give them a few more moments, when he realized that this wasn't the same waitress at all.
"Nam fucking Woohyun," she seethed, towering over the table. Sungjong could only stare, gape-mouthed, eyes shifting back and forth between the angry server and the one she addressed by expletive, who was now making it a point to look very interested in the design on the tablecloth.
"You have a lot of fucking nerve showing up here tonight," she continued. Her voice was loud, and some of the other patrons of the restaurant were beginning to stare. "I thought I told you to never come here again."
"How was I supposed to know you were working tonight?" Woohyun retorted, lifting his head to glare back at her. "I'm not psychic." He slumped down in his seat and hunched his shoulders before grumbling into his chest, "Besides, that was like a year ago, like I'm gonna pay attention if you're at the same job or not."
"UM. May I please ask what the hell is going on?" Sungjong said, his voice raised. The waitress looked at him and gave him a once-over, making Sungjong feel very self-conscious, before turning her attention back on Woohyun. "And I suppose this is your latest pursuit," she sneered. "I take it he has my old job and that's why you've gone after him? I admit Nam Woohyun; a dinner date is a step up from your usual ways."
Wait, old job?! Sungjong's eyes almost bugged out of his head. That meant she used to work at the firm with Woohyun, which meant...
"Oh, you've caught on," the waitress said, taking in the way Sungjong was now staring at Woohyun with something between shock and disapproval. "Yeah, this jerk 'dated' me too, back when I was an intern at your current workplace. Oh, I was warned too, but this guy is an excellent manipulator. Sucked me right in, he did."
She kicked Woohyun's leg that was sticking out from under the table, causing him to yelp and shuffle his chair back and away from her. "He broke it off right after we slept together."
Now it was Sungjong's turn to glare at Woohyun, who was looking about as pitiful as a dog that just got yelled at. He assumed that Sungyeol's story was exaggerated, and that Woohyun really wasn't as bad as he was made out to, but hearing it from a second, less dramatic person solidified it. This didn't change the fact that he still wanted to like the older man, just that tiny bit, but right now, this. This was too much to handle.
He stood abruptly and threw some change on the table, to tip the other server for bringing them drinks. Woohyun followed his actions with his eyes and made motions to follow him, but quickly sat back down when he saw the look Sungjong was giving him. "Thanks for letting me know," he said, nodding curtly at the waitress, who stepped aside to let him pass, before walking out the door.
Burying his face in the collar of his coat, Sungjong briskly walked towards the bus stop, feeling embarrassed that he let himself get that far involved. He knew, he /knew/ it was a bad idea to begin with, so why did he go through with it. No, it was time to go back to his no strings attached way of doing things. It was lonely, but for the better.
When the bus pulled up five minutes later, Sungjong looked back towards the direction of the restaurant to see if Woohyun followed him out. Seeing no sign of the other man, he sighed and stepped inside, collapsing bonelessly into a seat as he stared blankly out the window.
The weekend passed without much fuss. Sungjong elected to stay home, venturing out only to go to the convenience store across the street from his apartment to pick up some snacks while he watched sci-fi marathons on TV. He wasn't broken-hearted; far from it, actually. Just disappointed more than anything.
When he returned to work at 8:30 the following Monday morning, he was taken aback by the lack of sticky note waiting for him on his monitor. Not that he expected one there after what transpired Friday night, but he had gotten so used to seeing one every morning that it further reinforced that disappointment he felt from the weekend.
Woohyun was nowhere to be seen. By 9:30 Sunggyu had begun to walk around the office, asking if anyone knew where he was because he hadn't called in. At this point Sungjong began to feel awful. He knew he shouldn't, because what Woohyun did to that girl was pretty terrible and he was right for reacting like he did, but at the same time what if Woohyun really genuinely liked him and he had just ruined it? There had to be a reason for the way he was treated compared to how he usually acted, after all.
10:00 rolled around and Sunggyu was about at his wits end trying to locate his missing employee (and Sungjong had accomplished nothing of his filing because he was too busy fretting), when Woohyun finally walked in, looking like he hadn't slept in a week. Sungjong watched as he brushed off Sunggyu, who looked like he was about to explode, saying he'll make up the lost time by staying late, dragging his feet into his cubicle and disappearing as he sat down. The entire time not acknowledging Sungjong, who was staring at him during his entire walk of shame through the office.
Well if he didn't feel awful before, he sure felt terrible now. Sungjong anxiously watched the clock on the wall, waiting for noon to hit so he could dash over to Woohyun and apologize, fighting the urge to just get up and do it now. He caught the attention of Sungyeol, who was walking past and mouthed "what did you do?" at him with questioning eyes. Sungjong shook his head and waved him on, indicating he'll tell him later. Sungyeol twisted his mouth in confusion, but shrugged and left Sungjong alone.
Finally lunch hour came, and Sungjong bolted from his chair to Woohyun's side of the office. The latter was sliding on his coat and was about to step out of his cubicle, but stopped abruptly when Sungjong suddenly appeared in front of him. Woohyun opened his mouth in what Sungjong assumed was going to be a request to leave him alone, but Sungjong raised a hand to his mouth to stop him.
"I'm sorry," the younger blurted out, causing Woohyun to look confused. He ran a hand through his hair as he sighed, looking even more exhausted to Sungjong from this close.
"We should talk," Woohyun said. He took Sungjong by the wrist and led him out of the office, pushing open the fire exit next to the elevator and bringing them both into the empty stairwell.
Sungjong looked around nervously. "You sure this is a good place?" he asked. "Someone might walk by and--"
"No one will walk in, don't worry," Woohyun interrupted. A tired smile crept on his face and Sungjong could see bits of the normal Woohyun shine through. "They're all too lazy to take the stairs."
This made Sungjong laugh, as he believed it. Covering his mouth to stifle it from echoing down the stairwell, he stopped when he saw the serious look replace the smile that was just on Woohyun's face.
"Look, I don't know why you're apologizing to me," Woohyun said, his voice sounding hollow. "If anything I should be apologizing to you--to everyone, really."
Sungjong closed his eyes and huffed. "Yeah, but I walked out on you so. I should at least say sorry for that."
Woohyun looked bewilderedly at him. "But," he started. "I'm the reason you walked out, so it's my fault in the end."
He paused, looking lost and unsure of where to go next. Sungjong himself was unsure of how he should be reacting. Should he be angry? Comforting him? It's seemed like the most logical action to take. He resisted the urge to lay a comforting hand on Woohyun's forearm while Woohyun spoke.
"I'm not used to being seen as anything other than a flirt. Even going into university, I was known as that guy who slept with all the freshmen, even though I was more like the guy who slept in the art studios because he stayed at school too late to catch the bus."
Sungjong couldn't help but giggle at that familiar imagery. "You sound like how I was in uni," he said. Woohyun smiled before going on.
"Eventually though, that image caught up with me," he continued, his shoulders sagging with weariness. "And I kind of...became what people said I was."
He pursed his lips, looking down at the concrete floor in disappointment. "When that waitress--god I can't even remember her name--said I was an excellent manipulator, she wasn't wrong. But that's because I'm pretty easy to manipulate myself.
The resist to the urge Sungjong felt to lay a comforting hand on Woohyun's arm dissipated, and he did so, causing the latter to look up and smile apologetically. Somehow none of this surprised Sungjong. He was always pretty intuitive when it came to people, and his assumption about Woohyun's flirty nature having some sort of underlying aspect turned out to be right on the mark. What he said next would either make or unbreak this moment, so he had to choose his words carefully.
"I...never realized," he said, continuing his hold on Woohyun's arm. "You must really like me if you're willing to spill your heart out to a guy you've known for less than a month."
There was a long silence as Woohyun stared at him. Sungjong panicked that what he said wasn't the right thing at all. He was about to blurt out another apology when suddenly Woohyun burst into laughter, doubling over and forcing Sungjong to let go.
Sungjong watched Woohyun cackle as though he had just told the funniest joke in the world. He watched the latter right himself, his face red, wiping away tears as he struggled to gain his composure. Woohyun took in Sungjong's utterly confused face and burst into another fit of giggles. It was at that moment that Sungjong realized that he was seeing the real Woohyun, and not the charm-filled, smooth operator that normally puttered around the office. He took in how the other's eyes disappeared when he laughed, and the crooked teeth that he never noticed before in the otherwise still blinding smile. Admittedly this was a very romanticized way of looking at another person, but at this point Sungjong didn't care.
Finally Woohyun stopped laughing for good, his old grin (albeit with something more honest about it) back on his face. He still looked tired, but not completely lifeless like before. He looked at Sungjong, who still felt confused, but in a good way, and smiled even wider. "Yeah," he said. "I guess I do."
It was Sungjong's turn for his face to go red, though this time out of embarrassment. "Oh shut it," he said, punching Woohyun in the arm softly. "You tried to charm me once and it didn't work, what makes you even think it's gonna work this time?"
Woohyun chuckled, taking in the playful tone in Sungjong's voice. "Is that a challenge?" he replied. "I'll have you know, I am an expert at the art of wooing with sticky notes."
"...I guess you have a point there."
The two stood in silence for a moment while they looked at each other, smiling.
"So how about it?" Woohyun asked, holding out a hand as if he wanted to give Sungjong a handshake. "A do-over?"
Sungjong contemplated the hand extended in front of him. On one hand, he could decline and just go back to his old, loner self, and have a routine work life with no surprises. Then again, surprises can be good sometimes, and having someone to share those surprises with, better, even if they are kind of annoying. He took Woohyun's hand gently in his own and squeezed it as he nodded. "A do-over."
("So about that apologizing to everyone else you were talking about..."
The two were grabbing something to eat from a street vendor outside their building, as their little heart to heart had taken up most of the lunch hour. Woohyun took the hotdogs from the old man and nodded thank you, before jumping back at the expectant gaze Sungjong was subjecting him with.
"All in due time!" he exclaimed, handing one of them over to the younger boy, who promptly began shoving it in his mouth. "I'm not a miracle worker."
"Well," Sungjong said around a mouthful of food, before swallowing it. "At the very least you can start with mending the peace in the office."
"You mean Sungyeol."
"Obviously. You and Sunggyu-ssi seem to have a good working relationship after all, so--"
"Oh my GOD." Woohyun shouted, spitting a mess of unchewed hotdog everywhere, attracting several pigeons to his feet. "You thought me and that uptight old man actually had a thing?"
"You call him 'Gyu' without any honorifics, how else was I supposed to interpret that?!"
Woohyun barked a laugh, covering his face with his hand. "We were roommates at university, but that was it. Trust me; all pretense of formality goes out the window when you share a one-bedroom dorm with someone for four-and-a-half years."
Sungjong flushed and closed his eyes indignantly. "W-well sorry for assuming! I just thought..."
He felt a weight land on his head and opened his eyes to Woohyun patting his hair. "You're so cute," Woohyun said, smiling that same cheeky smile from before. Sungjong swatted it off and focused his attention back on his lunch so he wouldn't have to look Woohyun in the eye and get embarrassed again.
"So about that apologizing to Sungyeol you were talking about..."
"I'll get around to it," Woohyun hand waved Sungjong's pressing comment off. "I'm thinking of making him suffer a bit more for all the damage he's put my reputation though."
"Fair."
"Besides, he probably thinks I ruined your life like I did everyone else, so might as well roll with it for a bit for fun."
"You're such an asshole.")
Pairing/Focus: Woohyun/Sungjong
Rating: PG
Word count: 6,900~ words
Summary: Sungjong liked to keep his professional and private lives separate. A concept that Woohyun had a hard time understanding.
To: FELDTS
From: Your Secret Santa
Lee Sungjong liked to keep his personal and professional lives separate. It was a habit stemming from his time in university, after an unfortunate incident involving the TA of his most important class freshman year being the guy he accidentally made out with at a party and accidentally blew off the following day because he didn't recognize him outside of his drunken stupor. After that he swore off any sort of interaction with people at school, instead putting all of his focus on his studies and end of semester portfolios.
The school-focused life was a lonely life, for sure, but had its own rewards in year after year Dean's List placements and time to marathon horror movies without any commitments to inane things such as a social life. This carried over after graduation, when Sungjong was searching for a new job. With his high grades, exceptional portfolio, and raving compliments from his professors and peers (despite being fully committed to the loner life, he still had several social obligations in the form of being courteous to classmates), any sort of career was open to him, but it was one online ad in particular that he was determined to apply for.
It was a highly sought-after intern position at one of Seoul's leading graphic design firms. Sungjong busted his ass on his portfolio and cover letter, hardly sleeping in what he could describe as the most painful two weeks of his life. The phone call finally came a few days after he had dropped everything off, as he sat bleary-eyed and exhausted in a Starbucks in Hongdae, trying to piece together what remained of his soul with vanilla lattes and free wi-fi.
Sungjong's first day of work goes about as well as he expected. His boss wasn't too much older than him, and was kind in a fatherly sort of way, helping Sungjong get accustomed to the fast-paced nature of the office and offering to give him advice whenever he asked. One of his new coworkers later pulled him aside after he finished speaking to the older man. "Don't get too comfortable," the young man said. "He's pulling the nice guy act now 'cuz you're new, but when it comes to business--BLAM! he turns into a right dick awful fast."
"Sungyeollie, he only does that to you because you're always pushing your deadlines." Another employee, Sungjong remembered his name being Myungsoo, spoke up as he walked by, overhearing the conversation. Sungyeol rolled his eyes at the newcomer and crossed his arms, puffing his cheeks out dramatically. Myungsoo ignored the show and turned to Sungjong, an apologetic smile on his face. "Pay no attention to this kid; he's just mad that Sunggyu-sajangnim won't recognize his 'artistic vision'." Myungsoo punctuated the last two words with air quotations. Sungjong chuckled, smiling into the back of his hand. "I can imagine."
"Just don't get on his bad side like this loser does on a daily basis and I think you'll be fine, he likes you enough."
Sungyeol turned back to the two younger men and gave them both a withering glare.
"But hey, Sungjong-ssi?"
Sungjong stopped and turned, and saw that Sungyeol hadn't walked off yet. "I'm just gonna warn you now, because you're new and I like you and I don't wanna see you get hurt but..." Sungyeol trailed off, biting his lip. Sungjong looked at him quizzically. "Don't get involved with Nam Woohyun."
A look of confusion crossed over Sungjong's face and he looked around the office, trying to remember if he had met someone named Woohyun earlier. "Ah, he called in sick today," Sungyeol said, waving his hands. "But I'm serious. He's got a bit of a reputation of trying to get in with the newbies. Flirts with them. A lot. Has probably slept with half the office by now. Well, when most of them were still here..."
Sungjong raised an eyebrow. "Most...?"
The taller man's cheeks flushed slightly. "Never mind that part," he continued. "Just. Ignore him. He'll get bored and move on eventually. Maybe."
Sungjong was less than reassured by this flimsy plan. "I'll... keep that in mind." He paused as he took in Sungyeol's uncomfortable state. It seemed this wasn't the first time he's had to issue this warning. "Thanks, Sungyeol-ssi."
He waved goodbye and turned and walked towards the front door, suddenly feeling not so great. I guess we'll see what this Nam Woohyun guy is like tomorrow.
Tuesday morning arrived without much fanfare, and Sungjong arrived to work a few minutes early after stopping by the coffee shop downstairs to pick up a carrot muffin and coffee for breakfast. Setting it down on his desk, he began to unbutton his coat when footsteps from right behind him startled him out of his activity.
He turned around to face the source of the noise, and came face to face with an unrecognizable person he assumed to be this Woohyun guy he was warned about. He wasn't tall--Sungjong was taller by several centimetres--with dark brown hair that was pushed up off his face with gel and a straight nose. Any other features Sungjong might have been able to take in were lost in the very distracting smile that Woohyun was giving him.
"You must be the new intern," Woohyun said, holding out a hand. Sungjong took it and shook it cautiously. "I'm Woohyun."
The words flew out of Sungjong's mouth before he could stop them.
"I know."
Woohyun's mouth formed an "o" and his eyebrows rose slightly. "You know."
Sungjong wanted to smack himself. "You weren't the only person here yesterday, and so I just put two and two together," he said quickly, clinging to the first excuse that came to mind. It wasn't entirely false, either.
"Uh huh."
Not letting go of Sungjong's hand, Woohyun leaned in closer so his face was less than a foot from the younger man's, a glint in his eyes. "Well, if you need any more help around the office." That smile again. "Just let me know. I'm always happy to help."
At that point, Sungjong let go and backed away, frowning at the shorter man. "I think I'll be fine, thanks," he said, making sure the discontent he was feeling was present in his voice. Woohyun didn't appear to be fazed by this, and kept on grinning.
"Okay, okay," he said, retreating from the enclosed space and back into the hallway that divided the rows of cubicles. "My offer still stands anyways."
And with that he disappeared, leaving a very confused and unimpressed Sungjong.
It was Thursday after lunch when the first note appeared. Sungjong had come back to his cubicle and was about to sit in his chair when he caught the bright pink sticky note out of the corner of his eye. He reached over to his monitor where it had been stuck and yanked it off to look at it more closely. Two words were written on it in a lazy hand, followed by what looked like a messy attempt at a smiley face:
"hey cutie~ ;)"
Sungjong squinted at the note. He slowly stood up and looked around the rest of the office. Most people had come back from lunch before him, so any of his coworkers could have been the culprit. Any, that is, if it weren't for one Nam Woohyun that was lazily hanging over the walls of his cubicle staring right at him with a smirk on his face.
If Sungjong was giving him a look that would suggest displeasure, it was not reflected in Woohyun's face as he broke into a smile and nodded at the note that was still pinched between the younger's fingers. Sungjong looked back at the note, messy handwriting and all, before glancing back up to find that Woohyun's head had disappeared. All he could do was stare incredulously at the spot where Woohyun had been. He frowned, and dropped into his chair, flipping the sticky note into the waste basket next to his desk.
Just remember what Sungyeol-ssi said, he thought to himself, quickly busying himself with staring at the spreadsheet on the screen in front of him. Because he was just an intern, Sunggyu had started him out on handling some of the backlog that had begun to build up due to employing an office of creative minds that hated to do paperwork. What Sunggyu had neglected to mention was that it was about two yearsí worth, so Sungjong had been left with a pile of USB flash drives on his desk collected from about twenty employees who had purposefully put off the work until a new intern was hired to do it for them. Sungjong couldn't entirely fault them; after all, paperwork was boring and a pain in the ass, but still. Dicks.
Sungjong expected a follow-up to the sticky note at some point that afternoon, but either Woohyun had completely forgotten about it or was waiting for a better opportunity to corner the poor intern. As soon as the clock hit five, Woohyun had seemingly vanished from the office, making Sungjong wonder if he actively camped next to the door at five minutes to, just so he could leave right away.
Over the next week and a half, Sungjong experienced the same thing every single day. After lunch ended, he would find a colourful note with a few hastily-scribbled flirty words stuck to his monitor, followed by a charming smile from across the room, with the culprit fleeing the scene once the work day ended. Sungjong was frustrated, not only because the notes were annoying, but also because holy mixed signals. He made it a point to eventually ask Sungyeol if this was normal behavior from Woohyun, given that he was warned about an obvious flirt, not someone who looked like he was playing hard middle school hard-to-get.
The follow-up finally came after three full weeks of not-so-anonymous note-leaving. This time Sungjong found a neon green sticky note perched on top of a carrot muffin that was sitting his desk when he arrived first thing in the morning. He looked blankly at it for a minute, confused because his breakfast was in his right hand, and how did it get on the desk if he was still holding it. Then the brightly coloured paper caught his eye, and he snapped out of his sleep-induced daze to lean forward and scrutinize it.
"thought you might be hungry~ gotta keep our interns happy!! =_="
This time Sungjong shot upright, to scan the tops of the cubicles to find Nam Woohyun's head so he could throw the muffin and note back at his stupid, handsome face, but instead he tripped and fell backwards into his chair as he was met with Woohyun staring at him from the wall behind his desk. Woohyun broke into a grin as he grabbed Sungjong's right arm before the young intern was completely at gravity's mercy.
"Woah, I didn't expect you to fall for me that fast," Woohyun said, steadying Sungjong as he detangled his feet from the wheels of his chair and righted himself. It took every amount of willpower in Sungjong's body not to smash the now-crushed muffin in his hand into the other's smarmy grin because he did not just hear those words come out of Woohyun's mouth. "Wow," Sungjong deadpanned, placing the squashed food (thank god it was wrapped in plastic) on his desk next to the whole muffin, and avoiding eye contact with the older man. "Do you use that line on all your potential sexual prospects?"
Woohyun let go of Sungjong's arm and raised his hands defensively. "Hey, I was just making a joke." Sungjong looked up, not surprised to see that the blinding grin on Woohyun's face hadn't faltered the slightest. "Uh huh," he retorted, blowing the hair that had fallen into his eyes from the stumble out of his face. "And I'm sure the write and dash you've been pulling the past few weeks was just a joke too."
Does this guy ever stop smiling? Sungjong thought, as his (what he thought anyways) biting words failed to make an impact on the seemingly permanent display of pearly whites Woohyun was giving him.
"The direct approach obviously wasn't going to work," Woohyun said, Sungjong assuming he was referring to their first encounter. "So I had to come up with a more subtle way to finally talk to you. Worked, didn't it?"
Sungjong opened his mouth to shoot back but paused when he realized Woohyun was right, it had worked. They were talking after all. He crossed and uncrossed his arms, at a loss for words.
"Well then what do you want?" he said, finally finding something to say, as lame as it was. Woohyun leaned his elbows on the top of the wall, resting his head on his arms.
"I want to take you out for dinner."
Sungjong almost guffawed. "Are you serious?" he angrily whispered, not wanting to shout as it was still the early morning. "You went through all that trouble just to ask me out on a date?"
Woohyun didn't move. "One hundred percent serious," he said, straight faced. This was the first time the grin had left his face, and Sungjong was actually able to take notice of just how attractive he was. No wonder he had guys and girls falling for him all the time.
Sungjong placed a single finger to his lips as he contemplated the offer. Normally it would be a flat out "no" right away, but something about how Woohyun was asking was making him reconsider his policy. "So you know that I know about your reputation, right?" Sungjong asked, feeling like it was a stupid question but had to be asked regardless.
"If you didn't I'd be questioning the effectiveness of how quickly gossip gets spread around this office, of course I know you know." Woohyun didn't sound annoyed, surprisingly to Sungjong, so the intern decided to question further.
"So why are you even bothering?"
Sungjong didn't expect much of an answer, much past "because I think you're hot" or one of the various other flirty compliments he received in sticky note form over the past few weeks. So when Woohyun answered, he felt honestly surprised.
"Because I'm genuinely interested in you," the older man said, tilting his head back and forth on his arms. The straight face still hadn't left, and Sungjong was beginning to think this guy was legitimate in his feelings.
"I mean, if you say no I'm not going to get hurt feelings or anything because I'd expect it, but I do think you're cute and I like how you act so--"
"Sure."
It was Woohyun's turn to be surprised. "Seriously?" he asked, completely straightening up so he was level with Sungjong's height again, his mouth dropping open.
Sungjong surprised himself with his answer as well. "Uh yeah," he said, face reddening. He was acting like his old pre-college self, what was the matter with him. "I guess."
Immediately Woohyun reverted back to his charming self. "Great!" he said, grabbing a pad of sticky notes and a pen and started to jot down a bunch of information. He ripped the top sheet off and stuck it to Sungjong's monitor. "Here's the restaurant, I made a reservation for seven on Friday night. My phone number is there too just in case."
Sungjong stared at it, dumbfounded. "You had...a reservation..." he muttered, feeling like he had just gotten horribly pranked.
"Never can be too prepared!" Woohyun replied, winking at him cheekily. "I'll see you there on Friday."
He waved and leapt off the desk he was perched on this entire time, disappearing into his own cubicle before Sungjong could say another word. Whatever good feeling Sungjong had about this situation had vanished entirely, and he scowled at the sticky note (highlighter yellow this time) as he sat in his chair.
A sudden growl from his stomach reminded him that he hadn't eaten yet, and Sungjong was reminded of his now-crushed muffin. Groaning, he face planted his head into the desk. As he turned it sideways to lie down, he saw the muffin that Woohyun had bought for him, note and all, out of the corner of his eye. He glared at it, before reluctantly picking it up and peeling the plastic off. At least Woohyun was good for something.
"You're kidding?!"
Sungjong raised a hand to block the onslaught of half-chewed food that came rocketing out of Sungyeol's mouth at his outburst. The older designer had invited him out for lunch on the apparent grounds of 'Myungsoo ditched me because he's a butt', which Sungjong eventually realized meant, 'Myungsoo had extra work to do that needed to be done over lunch'. He wiped the food off his hand onto the rumpled napkin next to his plate, before calmly replying. "No, I'm not. Nam Woohyun really did ask me out because he is 'genuinely interested' in me."
Sungyeol slowly closed his mouth and swallowed what food remained in it. Jabbing his fork in Sungjong's direction, he narrowed his eyes and said darkly, "So you said no, right?"
"..."
"Right?"
"Well..."
"Arrrrrghhhhhhhhhhh!" Sungyeol groaned loud enough for the two businesswomen the table over to turn and shoot him a dirty glare, to which he responded by sticking out a food-covered tongue. "You are so mature," Sungjong said, amused by the disgusted reactions it provoked from the women, but quickly silenced himself as Sungyeol's ensuing rant steamrolled over his words.
"I tooooolllld you to ignore him. Why didn't you listen to meeeee? Now he's going to take advantage of your fragile heart and crush all of your hopes and dreams into itty bitty pieces, along with your soul and you will NEVER love another human the same way AGAIN!"
A small smile tugged at the corner of Sungjong's mouth as Sungyeol paused to catch his breath. If there was one thing Sungyeol could be counted on, it was melodrama. "This sounds awfully like words coming from experience," he said, as Sungyeol's eyes widened and red began to creep up his face.
"N-no!" Sungyeol said shrilly, sitting unnaturally upright and crossing his arms. "This is all just from hearsay! And I'm totally not warning you again because Woohyun is a heartbreaking jerk!" He finished this sentence with a pout, glaring menacingly at the light fixture next to their table.
Sungjong laughed, head bent downwards so only his shaking shoulders are seen. Somehow this doesn't surprise him. When he comes back up for air, Sungyeol is still having an indignant staring contest with an inanimate object, so he speaks. "Actually, I'm kind of interested too," he says, picking up his fork and pushing what's left of his meal around his plate absently. Reluctantly interested, really. Despite all common sense he had about not getting into any kind of relationship with his fellow employees, there was something about Woohyun he found oddly charming. When there is no answer from the other man, he pushed on.
"I dunno, there just seems like something more to him than sleeping around. I think he's really looking for a meaningful relationship, and just hasn't found the right person yet."
Sungyeol scoffed at this. "And you think that somehow, you're the one? Lee Sungjong I never took you for the romantic type."
"Well...no..." Sungjong trailed off. He rested his elbows on the table and his chin in his hands. "But you have to admit, the note thing is pretty weird."
Sungyeol sighed and mirrored Sungjong's pose, right down to the furrowed brow in confusion. "Yeah, you've got point there," he said, chewing on his bottom lip. "Normally he's more upfront about these things--and hey, that's also just from observation, not a personal account. But he's never been so sneaky about wanting to talk to someone. Maybe he /does/ like you that much."
He smirked. "Who'd've thunk, Nam Woohyun actually has feelings beneath that cold, hard, muscle-y surface. I think I have a tear in my eye," Sungyeol mused, as he made dramatic motions to wipe at nonexistent tears with a single finger. Sungjong laughed again; but this time softer. He really wanted to know why Woohyun was treating him so differently, if by all accounts he was a womanizing (man-nizing? Sungjong had no idea what the right word would be) fiend. At the same time, what caused him to become like that in the first place? Sungjong must have looked pensive to Sungyeol, because the latter poked his forearm and smiled a gummy smile at the younger man when he looked up. "Hey, I'm sure it'll be fine. There's gotta be a good reason he's giving you the V-I-P treatment."
Sungyeol stood from his chair and fished into his pockets, pulling out several bills and some loose change to pay for the meal. "Oh no, you don't have to," Sungjong started to protest, standing as well, but Sungyeol laughed and waved his hands at the younger. "Don't worry about it, I'm the hyung right? Besides, it's the least I can do for projecting all my-er, other people's horror stories onto your romance." A grin broke on Sungjong's face at Sungyeol's slip-up, to which the latter playfully shoved his arm.
"Hey, at least I can say I told you so if it all goes up in flames at the end," the tall man shot, holding the door of the bistro where they just had lunch to let Sungjong pass through. "How tactful of you," Sungjong said, still grinning. "Are you always so comforting towards your friends?"
"They keep me around, don't they?"
"For comedic relief no doubt."
Sungyeol playfully swung an arm around Sungjong's shoulders. "I knew I was right about liking you," he said. He pulled his phone out of his left pocket to check the time. "Hey, we've got fifteen minutes before we gotta be back at work. Wanna go bug Myungsoo?"
Sungjong covered his mouth as he laughed. "He going to kill you," he said. Sungyeol gasped in mock horror. "Me?!" he wailed, looking scandalized. "You'd throw me under the bus so easily?!"
"This implies I went along with your idea in the first place." Sungjong replied, smiling widely.
The two bantered back and forth the entire walk back, and Sungjong for the first time felt comfortable since starting this job. His self-determination in not getting involved with coworkers was stifling, and so breaking his own rules seemed worth it. Truthfully, given the types of people that worked here, it was probably inevitable. And so maybe, just maybe, this Woohyun thing was worth trying out. He might as well.
Friday evening rolled around and any sort of comfort Sungjong may have felt about going through with this date quickly dematerialized and was replaced by anxiety. He chewed his thumbnail, shooting glances at his phone to make sure that yes, it was already 7:30, and Woohyun was late. He had Woohyun's number, so he could just as easily call him, but he hesitated out of fear of giving this "date" legitimacy. Tapping his foot faster as each minute passed, Sungjong looked at his phone again. 7:40. I'm giving him five more minutes. Five more minutes before I just walk away and forget this whole thing ha-
"Hey, sorry I'm late!" Sungjong spun around to see a slighly disheveled Woohyun looking apologetically at him. He frowned. "Late's a bit of an understatement," he mumbled, not caring if Woohyun heard him. If Woohyun did, he made no show of it, as he looped an arm under one of Sungjong's loosely crossed ones, smiling that ever blinding smile. "Gyu caught me before I left work and I had to stay an extra hour to work on something for a last-minute client. I would've texted but I didn't have your number."
Sungjong's frown softened at Woohyun's tone--it really did sound like he was sorry. It was true he didn't give Woohyun his number, out of not wanting to commit entirely to this idea in the first place. He kind of felt bad, actually. Sungjong also didn't miss how Woohyun so casually referred to their boss. He knew the two had been there the longest, and had a bit of a rivalry; Woohyun had actually turned down the manager position out of not wanting to deal with the extra responsibility (this bit of backstory courtesy of Sungyeol's loud mouth). But still, even knowing someone that long didn't give someone the right to refer to them so informally, especially with someone so rigid like Sunggyu. A thought lingered at the back of Sungjong's mind that perhaps the two had some sort of thing in the past, but he quickly buried it as Woohyun ferried him into the restaurant.
Despite being almost an hour late to their reservation and it being the middle of dinner service, it only took a few winks and a smile (that charming smile again) before the dazed hostess led the two men to a table at the back. "Do you drink?" Woohyun asked Sungjong, as a waitress came up to their table to take their orders. "Ah n-no, not really. Water is good," Sungjong stuttered. He never stuttered. Why was he so damn nervous?
"Then water is fine for both of us," Woohyun said to the server, who whisked off to let them decide on food. Woohyun smirked over the top of his menu at the fidgeting Sungjong. "You'd think you were a high school girl on her first date or something, what's up?" he asked, his voice joking but soft. Sungjong cringed. Was he really that bad? "Actually, would you believe me if I said I hadn't dated since high school?" he replied, embarrassed that his nervousness was that apparent.
"No way." Woohyun's eyes grew wide. "You? I don't believe that at all, you're too cute to have stayed single."
"It's true," Sungjong laughed, relaxing somewhat. "I wanted to focus on school so I didn't really interact with people. Didn't have many friends either because of it."
"Wow," Woohyun whistled, tipping back his chair. "No wonder you were giving me the cold shoulder."
Sungjong picked up his glass of water and sipped at it, a small smile forming at the corner of his lips. "And what about you, Mr. Flirt?" he asked, setting it down and playing with the stem of the glass. "You now know about my lack of love life, so it's only fair you tell me about your torrid one."
Woohyun grimaced, a comical look on his handsome features. "You've been hanging out with Sungyeol, haven't you?" Sungjong actually broke into a smile at this point and laughed softly, before replying, "So is any of it true?"
The older man paused at this point, and a flash of something cross his eyes that made Sungjong freeze. Maybe he had crossed a line. He was about to apologize, when Woohyun spoke. "Yeah," he said, his voice quiet. "Mostly."
Sungjong opened his mouth to question the mostly part, when a figure suddenly entered the corner of his sight. Thinking it was the server come back to take their order, he turned to tell her to give them a few more moments, when he realized that this wasn't the same waitress at all.
"Nam fucking Woohyun," she seethed, towering over the table. Sungjong could only stare, gape-mouthed, eyes shifting back and forth between the angry server and the one she addressed by expletive, who was now making it a point to look very interested in the design on the tablecloth.
"You have a lot of fucking nerve showing up here tonight," she continued. Her voice was loud, and some of the other patrons of the restaurant were beginning to stare. "I thought I told you to never come here again."
"How was I supposed to know you were working tonight?" Woohyun retorted, lifting his head to glare back at her. "I'm not psychic." He slumped down in his seat and hunched his shoulders before grumbling into his chest, "Besides, that was like a year ago, like I'm gonna pay attention if you're at the same job or not."
"UM. May I please ask what the hell is going on?" Sungjong said, his voice raised. The waitress looked at him and gave him a once-over, making Sungjong feel very self-conscious, before turning her attention back on Woohyun. "And I suppose this is your latest pursuit," she sneered. "I take it he has my old job and that's why you've gone after him? I admit Nam Woohyun; a dinner date is a step up from your usual ways."
Wait, old job?! Sungjong's eyes almost bugged out of his head. That meant she used to work at the firm with Woohyun, which meant...
"Oh, you've caught on," the waitress said, taking in the way Sungjong was now staring at Woohyun with something between shock and disapproval. "Yeah, this jerk 'dated' me too, back when I was an intern at your current workplace. Oh, I was warned too, but this guy is an excellent manipulator. Sucked me right in, he did."
She kicked Woohyun's leg that was sticking out from under the table, causing him to yelp and shuffle his chair back and away from her. "He broke it off right after we slept together."
Now it was Sungjong's turn to glare at Woohyun, who was looking about as pitiful as a dog that just got yelled at. He assumed that Sungyeol's story was exaggerated, and that Woohyun really wasn't as bad as he was made out to, but hearing it from a second, less dramatic person solidified it. This didn't change the fact that he still wanted to like the older man, just that tiny bit, but right now, this. This was too much to handle.
He stood abruptly and threw some change on the table, to tip the other server for bringing them drinks. Woohyun followed his actions with his eyes and made motions to follow him, but quickly sat back down when he saw the look Sungjong was giving him. "Thanks for letting me know," he said, nodding curtly at the waitress, who stepped aside to let him pass, before walking out the door.
Burying his face in the collar of his coat, Sungjong briskly walked towards the bus stop, feeling embarrassed that he let himself get that far involved. He knew, he /knew/ it was a bad idea to begin with, so why did he go through with it. No, it was time to go back to his no strings attached way of doing things. It was lonely, but for the better.
When the bus pulled up five minutes later, Sungjong looked back towards the direction of the restaurant to see if Woohyun followed him out. Seeing no sign of the other man, he sighed and stepped inside, collapsing bonelessly into a seat as he stared blankly out the window.
The weekend passed without much fuss. Sungjong elected to stay home, venturing out only to go to the convenience store across the street from his apartment to pick up some snacks while he watched sci-fi marathons on TV. He wasn't broken-hearted; far from it, actually. Just disappointed more than anything.
When he returned to work at 8:30 the following Monday morning, he was taken aback by the lack of sticky note waiting for him on his monitor. Not that he expected one there after what transpired Friday night, but he had gotten so used to seeing one every morning that it further reinforced that disappointment he felt from the weekend.
Woohyun was nowhere to be seen. By 9:30 Sunggyu had begun to walk around the office, asking if anyone knew where he was because he hadn't called in. At this point Sungjong began to feel awful. He knew he shouldn't, because what Woohyun did to that girl was pretty terrible and he was right for reacting like he did, but at the same time what if Woohyun really genuinely liked him and he had just ruined it? There had to be a reason for the way he was treated compared to how he usually acted, after all.
10:00 rolled around and Sunggyu was about at his wits end trying to locate his missing employee (and Sungjong had accomplished nothing of his filing because he was too busy fretting), when Woohyun finally walked in, looking like he hadn't slept in a week. Sungjong watched as he brushed off Sunggyu, who looked like he was about to explode, saying he'll make up the lost time by staying late, dragging his feet into his cubicle and disappearing as he sat down. The entire time not acknowledging Sungjong, who was staring at him during his entire walk of shame through the office.
Well if he didn't feel awful before, he sure felt terrible now. Sungjong anxiously watched the clock on the wall, waiting for noon to hit so he could dash over to Woohyun and apologize, fighting the urge to just get up and do it now. He caught the attention of Sungyeol, who was walking past and mouthed "what did you do?" at him with questioning eyes. Sungjong shook his head and waved him on, indicating he'll tell him later. Sungyeol twisted his mouth in confusion, but shrugged and left Sungjong alone.
Finally lunch hour came, and Sungjong bolted from his chair to Woohyun's side of the office. The latter was sliding on his coat and was about to step out of his cubicle, but stopped abruptly when Sungjong suddenly appeared in front of him. Woohyun opened his mouth in what Sungjong assumed was going to be a request to leave him alone, but Sungjong raised a hand to his mouth to stop him.
"I'm sorry," the younger blurted out, causing Woohyun to look confused. He ran a hand through his hair as he sighed, looking even more exhausted to Sungjong from this close.
"We should talk," Woohyun said. He took Sungjong by the wrist and led him out of the office, pushing open the fire exit next to the elevator and bringing them both into the empty stairwell.
Sungjong looked around nervously. "You sure this is a good place?" he asked. "Someone might walk by and--"
"No one will walk in, don't worry," Woohyun interrupted. A tired smile crept on his face and Sungjong could see bits of the normal Woohyun shine through. "They're all too lazy to take the stairs."
This made Sungjong laugh, as he believed it. Covering his mouth to stifle it from echoing down the stairwell, he stopped when he saw the serious look replace the smile that was just on Woohyun's face.
"Look, I don't know why you're apologizing to me," Woohyun said, his voice sounding hollow. "If anything I should be apologizing to you--to everyone, really."
Sungjong closed his eyes and huffed. "Yeah, but I walked out on you so. I should at least say sorry for that."
Woohyun looked bewilderedly at him. "But," he started. "I'm the reason you walked out, so it's my fault in the end."
He paused, looking lost and unsure of where to go next. Sungjong himself was unsure of how he should be reacting. Should he be angry? Comforting him? It's seemed like the most logical action to take. He resisted the urge to lay a comforting hand on Woohyun's forearm while Woohyun spoke.
"I'm not used to being seen as anything other than a flirt. Even going into university, I was known as that guy who slept with all the freshmen, even though I was more like the guy who slept in the art studios because he stayed at school too late to catch the bus."
Sungjong couldn't help but giggle at that familiar imagery. "You sound like how I was in uni," he said. Woohyun smiled before going on.
"Eventually though, that image caught up with me," he continued, his shoulders sagging with weariness. "And I kind of...became what people said I was."
He pursed his lips, looking down at the concrete floor in disappointment. "When that waitress--god I can't even remember her name--said I was an excellent manipulator, she wasn't wrong. But that's because I'm pretty easy to manipulate myself.
The resist to the urge Sungjong felt to lay a comforting hand on Woohyun's arm dissipated, and he did so, causing the latter to look up and smile apologetically. Somehow none of this surprised Sungjong. He was always pretty intuitive when it came to people, and his assumption about Woohyun's flirty nature having some sort of underlying aspect turned out to be right on the mark. What he said next would either make or unbreak this moment, so he had to choose his words carefully.
"I...never realized," he said, continuing his hold on Woohyun's arm. "You must really like me if you're willing to spill your heart out to a guy you've known for less than a month."
There was a long silence as Woohyun stared at him. Sungjong panicked that what he said wasn't the right thing at all. He was about to blurt out another apology when suddenly Woohyun burst into laughter, doubling over and forcing Sungjong to let go.
Sungjong watched Woohyun cackle as though he had just told the funniest joke in the world. He watched the latter right himself, his face red, wiping away tears as he struggled to gain his composure. Woohyun took in Sungjong's utterly confused face and burst into another fit of giggles. It was at that moment that Sungjong realized that he was seeing the real Woohyun, and not the charm-filled, smooth operator that normally puttered around the office. He took in how the other's eyes disappeared when he laughed, and the crooked teeth that he never noticed before in the otherwise still blinding smile. Admittedly this was a very romanticized way of looking at another person, but at this point Sungjong didn't care.
Finally Woohyun stopped laughing for good, his old grin (albeit with something more honest about it) back on his face. He still looked tired, but not completely lifeless like before. He looked at Sungjong, who still felt confused, but in a good way, and smiled even wider. "Yeah," he said. "I guess I do."
It was Sungjong's turn for his face to go red, though this time out of embarrassment. "Oh shut it," he said, punching Woohyun in the arm softly. "You tried to charm me once and it didn't work, what makes you even think it's gonna work this time?"
Woohyun chuckled, taking in the playful tone in Sungjong's voice. "Is that a challenge?" he replied. "I'll have you know, I am an expert at the art of wooing with sticky notes."
"...I guess you have a point there."
The two stood in silence for a moment while they looked at each other, smiling.
"So how about it?" Woohyun asked, holding out a hand as if he wanted to give Sungjong a handshake. "A do-over?"
Sungjong contemplated the hand extended in front of him. On one hand, he could decline and just go back to his old, loner self, and have a routine work life with no surprises. Then again, surprises can be good sometimes, and having someone to share those surprises with, better, even if they are kind of annoying. He took Woohyun's hand gently in his own and squeezed it as he nodded. "A do-over."
("So about that apologizing to everyone else you were talking about..."
The two were grabbing something to eat from a street vendor outside their building, as their little heart to heart had taken up most of the lunch hour. Woohyun took the hotdogs from the old man and nodded thank you, before jumping back at the expectant gaze Sungjong was subjecting him with.
"All in due time!" he exclaimed, handing one of them over to the younger boy, who promptly began shoving it in his mouth. "I'm not a miracle worker."
"Well," Sungjong said around a mouthful of food, before swallowing it. "At the very least you can start with mending the peace in the office."
"You mean Sungyeol."
"Obviously. You and Sunggyu-ssi seem to have a good working relationship after all, so--"
"Oh my GOD." Woohyun shouted, spitting a mess of unchewed hotdog everywhere, attracting several pigeons to his feet. "You thought me and that uptight old man actually had a thing?"
"You call him 'Gyu' without any honorifics, how else was I supposed to interpret that?!"
Woohyun barked a laugh, covering his face with his hand. "We were roommates at university, but that was it. Trust me; all pretense of formality goes out the window when you share a one-bedroom dorm with someone for four-and-a-half years."
Sungjong flushed and closed his eyes indignantly. "W-well sorry for assuming! I just thought..."
He felt a weight land on his head and opened his eyes to Woohyun patting his hair. "You're so cute," Woohyun said, smiling that same cheeky smile from before. Sungjong swatted it off and focused his attention back on his lunch so he wouldn't have to look Woohyun in the eye and get embarrassed again.
"So about that apologizing to Sungyeol you were talking about..."
"I'll get around to it," Woohyun hand waved Sungjong's pressing comment off. "I'm thinking of making him suffer a bit more for all the damage he's put my reputation though."
"Fair."
"Besides, he probably thinks I ruined your life like I did everyone else, so might as well roll with it for a bit for fun."
"You're such an asshole.")