one.

It’s almost ten o’clock when Donghae reaches the ground floor of his company. It’s kind of funny, he thinks; the day hasn’t even started properly yet, but he has already left his office as well as all his responsibilities. Donghae shrugs unrepentantly. Irresponsibility feels great.

Then the doors of the main elevator open, and Donghae yawns as he looks over the lobby with a disdainful sniff. It’s crowded with employees coming in for work, as usual, and also what looks like a small group of visitors. Donghae takes in the scene through a critical eye—and then quickly hides behind a potted plant in a corner to avoid the rush.

It’s not that Donghae doesn’t feel like talking to people, but really, he does not feel like talking to anybody at all.

The thing is, as the CEO of this company, Donghae tends to attract a lot of attention from his peers. Usually it’s just to greet him or make him sign some papers, but it’s Monday, and it’s morning. Donghae has no wish to interact with other humans until at least after lunchtime. It might be kind of hard through, Donghae has to admit, considering that his name is plastered just about everywhere in the building, along with the fancy logo that the marketing department came up with. Donghae remembers that he used to feel very proud of it at first. Now as he’s still deprived of his ten-o’clock coffee and feels pissed off with the whole world, it just .

At some point while Donghae complains rather ungratefully about his life, the receptionist leaves his desk to lead the group of visitors. They’re about a dozen people and as soon as they disappear in the elevator, the lobby feels much quieter. Donghae takes the opportunity to sneak skillfully to the reception desk. He hides behind it like a thief, crouched down as low as he can. There, Donghae goes through the files scattered around the receptionist’s computer, halfheartedly looking for a letter that he should have received this morning. Honestly Donghae could have asked his secretary to go down to fetch it, but he’d wanted to go for a walk.

Also Donghae kind of really doesn’t want to work just yet.

“Uh, excuse me?” someone asks then.

Donghae blinks. Busy as he was thinking about how much he didn’t want to be busy today, Donghae had forgotten to keep himself safely hidden from plain sight. He curses under his breath—that was such a novice move.

Donghae doesn’t move for a few seconds, hoping that whoever it is will just move on. When it’s clear that they won’t, he straightens up reluctantly.

“Sorry,” Donghae starts monotonously as he looks up, “the receptionist isn’t—oh.”

Oh. Donghae blinks again because, holy , who is this? There’s a man, standing in front of Donghae on the other side of the receptionist desk, who somehow looks both a little lost and a lot cheeky. He’s handsome like no one else that Donghae has ever met before, and there’s something undeniably charming and confident about the way he moves around space. Even just standing there seems to attract attention around this handsome, charismatic man, and it makes Donghae feel strangely nervous. He gulps.

There’s a name card with Donghae’s logo pinned on the man’s clothes, and it says “Hyukjae”. Donghae feels suddenly blessed today because, holy , Hyukjae. Hyukjae’s just a bit taller than Donghae, yet younger as well. He has sharp features that mesmerize Donghae, and soft dark hair that Donghae wants to touch, and a cheeky little grin on his plump lips that makes Donghae gasp a little.

“Hi,” Hyukjae smiles, and Donghae’s world turns upside down for a long, long moment as he swoons rather unexpectedly.

Donghae feels terrible but he really hopes that Hyukjae isn’t too young, because hell. This is maybe the cutest person that he’s met since ever.

“Uh, sorry,” Hyukjae continues, “but I’m in the internship program and I got a bit late. My name’s Lee Hyukjae; I should be on the list. I’m… not sure where I’m supposed to go?”

Donghae had no idea that his own company had started an internship program, but someone’s paycheck is getting raised this month. He gulps, again, his throat suddenly dry with nervousness.

“It’s,” Donghae starts before he remembers that he actually doesn’t know anything about the other interns’ whereabouts. Donghae guesses that they were the group of visitors that went in the elevator earlier, but that’s all he knows. He supposes that he could ask the actual receptionist, who’s probably still upstairs with the rest of the group, but then that would mean cutting short his time with Hyukjae.

Donghae is almost tempted to give Hyukjae a special tour, you know, but then he prides himself in his professionalism. He should probably ask Hyukjae’s age first, too.

Also Donghae doesn’t have the actual guts to pull off something like that.

On the other hand, and judging by the curious-slash-smug little look that he’s still harboring on his face, Hyukjae looks like he’s totally at ease. The latter leans a bit further over the reception desk and towards Donghae, peering at the latter with a winning smile. Donghae nearly takes a step back to avoid being overwhelmed by Hyukjae’s bright presence.

Hyukjae doesn’t look like he’s any older than twenty-three, maybe twenty-four if Donghae’s being generous. He’s wearing clothes that usually wouldn’t be considered appropriate in a company such as Donghae’s, with his ripped jeans folded up to his ankles and his t-shirt that’s much too large around his shoulders. But it’s showing off Hyukjae’s lean figure and Donghae can spy a bit of skin around Hyukjae’s knees and ankles, so he has no complaints. The shirt is half-tucked into Hyukjae’s pants, and Donghae has the urge to pull the shirt out completely to make it look neat.

Donghae doesn’t though because, honestly, it makes him feel old.

“It’s,” Donghae says again. He fumbles with the receptionist’s papers on the desk, sending important files scattering on the floor and dropping a cup of pens over the chair. Over his shoulder, Donghae can see Hyukjae peering at him with his curious, amused eyes and it makes him even clumsier than usual.

Then, finally, Donghae finds the program pamphlet in a drawer. It reads, “Day 1: General visit and introduction to the different departments of the company”. That doesn’t really help Donghae because if he had to introduce his company, he’d start with the cafeteria, show off the menu and then tell people to go home.

For a brief moment, Donghae really envisages calling the receptionist or at least his secretary, when he spots his eleven-o’clock appointment stepping through the entrance. Donghae curses and barely resists the urge to hide under the desk again. He knows he’s pathetic but he really doesn’t need Hyukjae to find out about it so soon. Instead, Donghae clears his throat and points towards the general direction of the elevators.

“It’s this way,” Donghae says as he hastily leads Hyukjae away from Donghae’s revolting responsibilities.

“Oh?” Hyukjae blinks, surprised by Donghae’s sudden urgency. “Uh, okay?”

Donghae rushes them to the elevator, barely daring to make eye contact, just as the doors open to reveal the receptionist. The latter gasps upon seeing Donghae, flustered, and rushes out of the elevator.

“S—” he starts.

“Mr. Kim is here for his eleven-o’clock appointment,” Donghae cuts him off quickly before the receptionist can bow to him. “I’ll be bringing Mr. Lee to the first floor so he can join the rest of the interns.”

The receptionist blinks in confusion as Donghae steps inside the elevator along with Hyukjae. “Um, they’re actually on the third floor with the marketing department, but—”

“Right,” Donghae clears his throat, “third floor.” Next to him, Hyukjae raises an eyebrow but pushes on the third-floor button without a word. “I’ll be back in a minute, sir.”

The receptionist widens his eyes and points a finger to himself in bewilderment, as he repeats, “sir?”

Thankfully, before the receptionist can say anything else, the doors of the elevator close with a ding! Donghae releases a relieved breath as he finds himself alone with Hyukjae. But then he remembers that he’s, in fact, alone with Hyukjae, and his nervousness rushes up all of a sudden. Donghae nibbles on his lower lip awkwardly.

“So,” Hyukjae starts, prompting Donghae to jump out of his skin a little, “are you new here?”

What? Donghae blinks rapidly, confused. He’s been working here for almost five years, thank you very much, and that’s without counting the first year when he’d worked at creating the company.

“I mean,” Hyukjae continues a bit sheepishly, “you don’t look like you’re really at ease yet, you know. I thought maybe it’s because you’re not used to working here yet.”

Oh, that. “Uh.” Donghae flushes. “Uh, right, yeah, I’m. I’m, uh, new.” He clears his throat. In Donghae’s defense, it’s not every day that he lies about being a receptionist in order to talk to cute boys. “And you? I mean, obviously it’s your first day, but. You’re, uh… you’re an intern, right?”

Shut up, Donghae wants to yell at himself. Just shut the up already. Donghae has never felt as dumb as he does right now. He had no idea he was so good at stating the obvious.

“Yeah,” Hyukjae nods happily. He glances down at his nametag with a proud grin. “I’m in my last year of university and they’re requiring students to participate in an internship program if we want to graduate. I applied in a few other companies too but this one was my first choice.”

Now that Donghae thinks about it, there used to be something similar back in the days, when he was still free of being an adult. “Right,” Donghae mumbles. He hesitates for a second, and then asks bravely, “how old does that make you then?”

“Twenty-three,” Hyukjae answers. “And you? If that’s not too indiscreet?”

Donghae really does not want to answer this question. “Thirty-three,” he says with a resigned sigh.

That means that he’s literally ten years older than Hyukjae, which is not too bad, considering that it makes Hyukjae legal. But then again what twenty-three-year-old would be interested in someone as old as Donghae?  

“You don’t look like it,” Hyukjae points out after a short silence.

“Um, thanks,” Donghae says as he finally dares to glance over at Hyukjae, and.

And Hyukjae is staring.

Hyukjae is standing much closer to Donghae than the latter initially thought, and it makes him blush slightly. There’s also that playful smile pulling on the corners of Hyukjae’s plump lips that makes Donghae feel just a bit too hot. Hyukjae has his hands shoved into the pockets of his ripped jeans, and he’s leaning against the wall like he’s been there thousands of times, and the way that he’s looking at Donghae makes him feel unexpectedly flattered. It’s the way that Hyukjae’s eyes slowly look over Donghae, all subtle and thoughtful, like he’s thinking, well, you’re quite good-looking, aren’t you? Hyukjae hasn’t said a single word that might have hinted that he thought Donghae was cute, and yet all of his actions point towards it. He just needs to smile at Donghae, and Donghae unconsciously feels like the luckiest man in the world for having caught Hyukjae’s attention.

Donghae really wants to know since when a twenty-three-year-old kid became better at flirting than his old, theoretically more experienced self.

Then, Hyukjae tilts his