Youngjae doesn’t hate coffee. As a matter of fact, he’s quite addicted to it. Every morning, he would pick up a fresh lemon from their cafeteria and squeeze a good amount of it into his black coffee. For him, nothing beats the aroma of coffee and lemon combined. 

It’s Monday but he arrived in the office earlier than he usually does. You don’t do that on Monday blues. Fifty minutes before working time and his computer was already booted up and all the startup programs are popping one after another.

He sipped from his steaming mug as he read all of his pending emails that had compiled for the weekend. Most of them were just updates of s’ progress on their individual assignments and reports regarding status of ongoing projects. But as he clicked the arrow up a few more times, a certain subject caught his attention. Welcome Party. It was from Himchan. He read on. ‘hey tonight we’re having a welcoming party. you should come. the girls literally begged me to invite your so come okay? will get you later at the basement of your building at seven.’

Youngjae glanced at the stacked papers in the rack on his left. They were all concepts and layouts that he needs to check so s could proceed with their projects. He inhaled exhaled hard before stretching his arms up. “Today is going to be a marathon again,” he murmured before hitting the ‘OK’ as reply.

When the elevator dinged, Youngjae readied himself for an earful of nags. He’s thirty minutes late because he had to make last minute markups on one of ’s design. And the worst of it all is that he wasn’t even able to send a single message to notify his friend of his being late.

He stepped out and looked around but saw neither Himchan nor his car. He checked his phone but there was no unread message or any missed call. 

He just can’t bring himself to call his friend when it’s not even his damned party. It would make him appear as someone who’s adamant for some stupid welcome party. His ego won’t allow it.

Biting his lip to stop himself from cursing his friend, he turned back and was about to call the elevator when he heard someone calling him.

“Youngjae wait!”

Youngjae stopped and tried to find the source of the familiar voice.

Daehyun was almost running towards him.

The guy wasn’t wearing his race flag shirt but he found another flag to wear. Red stripes. Surely he isn’t the ambassador for America right? Youngjae thought while waiting for the eager guy to reach him. 

“I’m sorry I went outside for a bit to catch a breath of fresh air.”

Youngjae waved his hand to dismiss Daehyun’s apology and said, “I should be the one apologizing for coming late. Did Himchan send you to pick me up?”

“Yeah, he said he’s busy so he asked me the favor.”<