He had been terrible to everyone and he decided that he didn't want to be that person anymore. He still wanted Seungcheol in his life, that much he knew, but if he was going to achieve that then he would need to set things right. And after coming to that conclusion, Jeonghan decided that the first step would be to apologize. 

He would tell Seungcheol that he was sorry, ask for a fresh start, and he would see where they would go from there.

Jeonghan had taken a while to think about his actions after his conversation with Woozi at Angel's Cafe and he thought long and hard about how he was going to fix the mess he'd made. He knew he wanted to apologize to Seungcheol, but saying was easier than doing. Seungcheol had made it pretty clear through his treatment towards Jeonghan, or lack thereof, that he prefered not being near the other at all. During meetings that the two were forced be in, Seungcheol would simply ignore him and act like he wasn't even in the room. Jeonghan would try every now and then to get the other's attention by making eye contact but Seungcheol was insistant on ignoring him. That discouraged Jeonghan but he still kept trying, even trying to catch the older in the hallway during bathroom and lunch breaks. But Seungcheol always managed to slip through his fingers, somehow never being where Jeonghan would expect him to be. 

If Seungcheol said he was going to the bathroom, apparently he would go to one on a different floor. And if he said he was getting ramen for lunch, apparently that meant going to a shop that was a 10 minute drive away rather than going to the one that was just a block down from Shim Corp. Jeonghan tried not to be too pissed about Seungcheol's childish attempts to get away from him but at least he wasn't the only one annoyed by this. Seungcheol and his little escapades always caused him to be a few minutes late when the meetings would resume and that earned the young CEO a few mean looks from the other business men and a rather loud scolding from Woozi one time after a meeting was over. Jeonghan would be lying if he said he didn't enjoy overhearing that Seungcheol left with a pout that day after being told off for his childish behavior.

But besides just trying to apologize, Jeonghan was also trying to clean up his act. He stopped looking disinterested during meetings and actively took notes, and he listened intently when someone spoke, especially when Seungcheol spoke. It was a small change but it spoke volumes when people compared his attitude now from just a few days ago. Many members on the board even made note of that several times and Jeonghan had to role his eyes when Jae spoke up for him to accept the compliment. His new attitude may have made him look like a better spouse for Jae but that wasn't his intention at all, and to be quite frank, he didn't really care about bettering Jae's reputation. His real goal was to get Seungcheol to see that he wasn't the spoiled brat that he had made himself out to be when they had that argument and that he was actually worth the time of day. 

Jeonghan knew it wouldn’t be easy but he was determined and he wouldn’t stop until Seungcheol finally listened to his apology and forgave him.

It took about another week or so for Jeonghan to finally get that opportunity. By some miracle, Jeonghan had happened to spot the young CEO in a small bistro having lunch on a Saturday afternoon as Jeonghan was running some errands and popped into the small place for a quick bite. Seungcheol was sitting by himself eating a pretty large sandwich and looking through his phone and Jeonghan took the chance to go over and say hi.

“Is this seat taken?” Jeonghan asked politely.

Not expecting someone to come up to him, Seungcheol raised his head slowly to look at the person who had interrupted his lunch and then to the empty seat across from him at his tiny two-person table.

“What are you doing here?” Seungcheol asked skeptically.

“I was just dropping off a package and decided to get some lunch. I saw you here and thought it’d be nice to eat with a familiar face.” Jeonghan said with a warm smile, hoping Seungcheol wouldn’t turn him away.

Much to the long haired man’s delight, Seungcheol just sighed before muttering a quiet “whatever” as he took a sip of his water.

Smiling brightly, Jeonghan accepted and sat down, picking up a menu and then calling over a waiter within seconds to order a seafood pasta with a glass of orange juice.

“So…” Jeonghan started awkwardly. “What are you doing?” Jeonghan asked as he twiddled with his thumbs, a sign of nervousness that didn’t go unnoticed by the other.

“Just going through some emails.” Seungcheol answered before taking another big bite of his sandwich.

“Sounds boring. You shouldn’t be doing work stuff on a weekend.” Jeonghan replied with a pout. He never liked the idea of working on weekends. Weekends were meant for unwinding and relaxing…not boring business stuff.

He had always been that way and it seemed that Seungcheol hadn’t forgotten since Jeonghan saw the other chuckle at his words. Seeing that reaction brought warmth throughout the long haired man’s entire body.

“I see that attitude of yours hasn't changed.” Seungcheol said softly.

“Nope! Now come on, put your phone away and enjoy your lunch. You do have some amazing company after all.”

“Fine. Those emails weren’t important anyway. I was just killing time until I have to go pick up Chan.”

“Chan?”

“My son. I dropped him off at dance class and he should be done soon.” Seungcheol said, glancing at the time on his phone.

“Oh right. Your son…” Jeonghan seemed to deflate at the mention of Seungcheol’s son but he tried his best to play it off.

The brunet then tried his hardest to create small talk and thankfully Seungcheol was responding, humoring the younger by carrying on the conversations and eventually a comfortable atmosphere came around them. Jeonghan eased up a bit and Seungcheol smiled large enough to let his gums and dimples show…a sight that Jeonghan had always appreciated.

And as the conversations flowed easier between the two, they hadn’t noticed their hands slowly gravitating towards each other on the table top, an old habit they used to have back when they were younger and still in love. 

It was Seungcheol who pulled away first when he noticed the tips of their fingers brushing against each other. Neither of them said anything about it but Jeonghan’s mood did drop at the action.

Things grew silent between them again and Jeonghan decided that now was his opportunity to officially apologize to Seungcheol. He wasn’t sure when they’d get to sit down like this again and he wasn’t about let this chance go.

“Seungcheol….I’ve been wanting to talk to you for a while now.”

“Oh?” Seungcheol replied, curiosity evident in his voice. “About what?”

“I wanted to apologize. The last time we spoke I was unfair to you. I guess it really isn’t any of my business who you choose to spend your time with…so I’m sorry for getting mad at you and yelling at you like that.” 

Seungcheol took a moment to take in Jeonghan’s apology, certainly not expecting to hear that from the other, and then he let out a small sigh.

“You know…it’s not just me you should be apologizing to. You said some pretty bad things about Woozi-” 

“And I’ve already talked to Woozi about that and I apologized to him.” Jeonghan added quickly. “…He’s not such a bad guy once you get to know him.” Jeonghan mumbled and Seungcheol smiled after hearing that.

“He is pretty great, isn’t he.” The CEO said fondly and Jeonghan couldn’t help the hurt he felt seeing Seungcheol smile so warmly at the thought of someone else besides him.

“Yeah…He kinda talked some sense into me and made me see what a jerk I was being. Again…I’m sorry.” Jeonghan said sincerely and he hoped that Seungcheol would forgive him.

And to his delight, it seemed like Seungcheol had (saying that if Woozi had forgiven him then he could too) and they carry on with their lunch. They spend about 10 more minutes just chatting before Seungcheol announces that he has to leave. And just as Seungcheol is about to finish paying for their lunch, Jeonghan grabs the hem of his sleeve before he could even think about his actions. Seungcheol just gives him a questioning look.

“This was fun.” Jeonghan says lamely.

“Yeah, it was. Thanks for keeping me company.” Seungcheol says, clearly in a hurry to get to his next destination but Jeonghan still doesn’t let him leave.

“You know…we could do this again sometime. Maybe even make this a regular thing?”

Jeonghan looks hopeful but Seungcheol’s face is unreadable.

“Jeonghan….” Seungcheol says in a tone that Jeonghan doesn’t like.

“Just as friends.” The younger says almost desperately but Seungcheol still doesn’t budge.

“Jeonghan, I don’t think that would be a good idea.”

“Why not? It’s just lunch.” The younger forced a laugh, trying to hide his hurt but failing miserably.

“Look, I just don’t think it would work.”

“Why? At least give me a reason.” Jeonghan pushed and Seungcheol just sighed, too used to Jeonghan’s stubbornness to know that Jeonghan wouldn’t let him leave that easily.

“Because…you’re the one that said we couldn’t be friends. We weren’t even supposed to see each other’s faces again but I guess that part is unavoidable.” 

“But-” Jeonghan said in protest but Seungcheol didn’t give him the chance. 

“Look, I’m just trying to keep up with what we agreed upon after our break up. I’ll act civil with you for the sake of the merger but our relationship is strictly professional. Trying to be anything more would just complicate things... I’m sorry.” Seungcheol said before finally leaving the small restaurant, leaving Jeonghan to just stand there and watch his back disappear into a small crowd.

Later that day, Jeonghan found himself on his best friend’s couch eating from a tub of ice cream while Joshua cleaned up the mess around him.

“How did you even get into my apartment?” Joshua asked, perplexed at coming home to find the brunet crashing on his couch. 

“You leave your spare key under the mat. You should really find a new place for that thing, by the way.” Jeonghan said before shoving another spoonful of strawberry ice cream into his mouth.

From the way Jeonghan was sulking, Joshua knew something was wrong and he had a pretty good idea what the source of the problem was. So he didn’t say anything and let Jeonghan be for a but while he finished cleaning up. While he was doing the dishes, Joshua thought it would be best to get Jeonghan out and distract him for a bit so he sent a text to some of their friends and waited for a reply. And when he had finally gotten and confirmation, Joshua went back to his living room and forcibly removed the ice cream from Jeonghan’s hands.

“What the hell? I was eating that.” Jeonghan complained.

“Yeah, not anymore. Come on, we’re meeting Boo and the others downtown.” 

“I don’t want to.” Jeonghan whined and reached for the ice cream again.

“Well too bad. I don’t care if I have to drag your down there. You’re not spending your Saturday night sulking on my couch. Now come on.” Joshua said, literally dragging Jeonghan by his arms and pushing him towards the door.

About 30 minutes later Jeonghan and Joshua met with Seungkwan, Jun and Minghao at their regular Soju bar. Joshua had already told the others what kind of mood Jeonghan was in so they were all prepared to hear some whining but they decided it would be best to avoid asking what was wrong directly since they wanted to get Jeonghan’s mind off of things for a while. So they chose to talk about anything but the company and the merger.

“So, Josh…where’s Dokyeom? Don’t tell me you didn’t invite your boyfriend to a night out drinking?” Seungkwan teased.

“He’s not my boyfriend.” Joshua blushed.

“Yet.”

“We’re taking things slow. Besides, we’ve just gone on a few dates so chill. And yes, I did text him. He’s finishing up training the newbie and locking up the cafe. He said he’ll be here soon.” 

Minghao's ears perked up at that. “You hired a new employee?”

“Oh..yeah. Things were getting a little crazy and I finally found somebody willing to work the later shifts”

“Wow, really? Who would voluntarily give up their evening hours?” Jun asked.

“Apparently he’s an aspiring author. He writes during the day but since he’s not even close to submitting anything for publishing he said he wanted to do something on the side.” 

“Still, he must be desperate for some extra cash of something.”  

“Actually, he said his boyfriend is pretty successful lawyer so I doubt they have money issues. I think he just wanted the job for fun.” 

“Getting coffee for other people is fun?” Seungkwan asked, recalling his days as an intern and how getting coffee for other people was anything but fun.

“That doesn’t sound too bad. I wouldn’t mind doing that for a living.” Jeonghan pitched in and the table went silent. 

Jeonghan had mentioned on several occasions how he wanted to be a barista growing up but they all knew that the brunet didn’t have a choice in his career because of his marriage to Jae. A depressing mood fell over the table and it stayed that way until Dokyeom had showed up. The younger was confused at the serious look on all of his friends’ faces but with his and Seungkwan’s combined efforts, they were able to ease back into a more comfortable feeling.

They were on their third round when Jun started to get clingy towards Minghao and Dokyeom was leaning much closer to Joshua. Things were still innocent between the couples but Seungkwan still grumbled next to Jeonghan.

“I need a boyfriend.” Seungkwan said into Jeonghan’s shoulder and the elder chuckled. 

“What happened to 'diva Boo who doesn’t need no man?’ ” Jeonghan asked, amused at his dongsaeng who was slightly more tipsy than the rest.

“I said that back when majority of my friends were still single. Now I’m just the awkward 5th wheel on most occasions.” 

“I don’t usually come with a date. If you want, I can pretend to be yours for the night.” Jeonghan joked.

“Aw hyung, will you buy me flowers and tell me I’m pretty?”

“Sure. I’ll even take you away for a weekend.” Jeonghan played along, even wrapping his arm around the younger.

“That’s cute hyung. But seriously, if you wanted a date I’m pretty sure you’d just have to ask him.” Seungkwan replied and Jeonghan went stiff, removing his arm from the younger’s shoulder.

“You know I hate spending more time with Jae than necessary. Why would I ask him to come out with us?”

“That’s not the him I was talking about.” Seungkwan replied before taking another shot. However, when Jeonghan just gave him a questioning look, Seungkwan continued. “Oh come on Jeonghan, I see the way you look at Choi Seungcheol around the office. I’m pretty sure if you made a move on him he’d say yes.”

“I-” Jeonghan started before being cut off.

“Don’t encourage him.” Joshua said from across the table and Seungkwan just glared back at him.

“Why not? He’s clearly not happy with Jae. I say he should just go for it.” Seungkwan argued back.

“Yeah but doesn’t that mean he’d be cheating on Jae?” Minghao chimed in.

“But Jae’s an so I wouldn't blame Jeonghan if he wanted to go after Mr. Hot shot.” Jun responded.

“Wait, I thought Seungcheol was dating that Woozi guy…” Dokyeom added.

“He is?!” The three coworkers asked in unison, never having heard that detail before.

“It seems like it, which is exactly why I’ve been telling Jeonghan to not be a home wrecker and pursue the guy.” Joshua replied, staring Jeonghan down but the long haired brunet just gulped another shot of his drink before letting out a sigh.

“Well you don’t have to worry about me wrecking anything Shua. Cheol made it clear that nothing could ever happen between us.” Jeonghan finally said, taking yet another shot of his drink.

“You spoke with him…like outside of the office?” Seungkwan asked.

“Yup. We had lunch today.” Jeonghan said casually, ignoring the 3 pairs of eyes that went wide.

“Well don’t leave us hanging. Tell us what happened!” Jun urged.

“Nothing happened. I apologized for being a , asked if he wanted to be friends and he turned me down.”

“Ouch...really?” Minghao asked.

“Yeah… he even used the exact same words I said during our break up…practically threw them on my face.” Jeonghan added bitterly.

“Sorry man…” Joshua finally said, knowing that the break up was a sore topic for his best friend and how he didn’t like being reminded of it.

“Well then screw him! What kind of jerk turns down a friendship offer?” Seungkwan said in outrage, letting the alcohol speak for him.

“No, Boo it’s fine. Really. I kinda don’t blame Seungcheol…it just for me.” Jeonghan replied as he opened another bottle.

The boys then ordered another round of drinks and some more food, determined to cheer up Jeonghan by ordering whatever the brunet wanted. By the time they were ready to leave, only Minghao and Joshua were remotely sober while the others were completely trashed. Minghao volunteered to take Seungkwan back to his and Jun’s place and proceeded to call a cab while Joshua wondered how he was going to take care of both Jeonghan and a passed out Dokyeom. He ended up calling a cab too, deciding to take Jeonghan back to his house first and then he would probably let Dokyeom crash at his apartment. 

Once they had payed the nice lady at the front desk, Minghao helped Joshua load both Dokyeom and Jeonghan into one cab before Joshua got in the front seat and told the cab driver their first destination. 

With traffic, it took about 45 minutes for the cab to pull up on Jeonghan’s driveway and Joshua then struggled to get his best friend out of the car and then over to the front door. Joshua then knocked on the front door as he struggled to hold up Jeonghan’s weight and he waited for someone to open the door. Joshua just hoped that it would be the maid that opened the door and not his best friend’s husband.

But of course, luck wasn’t on his side and he was met face to face with a confused yet angry looking Jae.

“What did you do to him?” Jae asked in an accusatory tone.

Fully aware that Jae didn’t really like him, Joshua ignored the hostility towards him and handed Jeonghan over to the other. “We went out for some drinks and he got a little carried away.” Joshua explained.

“Just the two of you?” Jae’s eyes narrowed and Joshua just sighed.

“No. We went with a group of friends. Listen, it’s late and I’ve still gotta take care of one of our other friends. Just make sure Jeonghan gets to bed and that he takes something for his hangover in the morning.” 

“Don’t tell me how to take care of my Jeonghan.” Jae said possessively but Joshua was already heading back to the cab when he’d said it.

Jae then closed the front door and proceeded to take Jeonghan back to his room. The man couldn’t deny that he was pissed at his husband but he decided that he would talk about that in the morning. Instead, he worked on getting Jeonghan to bed. He was in the middle of wondering how he was going to get the other under the covers when he heard Jeonghan stir in his sleep and say something.

It came out as a quiet mumble but Jae could’ve sworn he’d heard his husband say “Cheol.” 

Furious, Jae dumped Jeonghan onto the bed without a care and slammed the guest room door shut. He swore to himself that he'd bring this up again later.

A/N: I'm so sorry for my inactivity lately. It's my last semster at Uni and things are getting a little crazy. I hope to be more frequent with updates after May so please don't give up on me! Tbh, it took me about a month to finish this chapter so... I really hope it's okay.

And yeah, thank you so much for reading and I hope you guys enjoyed! (Also...I'm slowly introducing new characters and I'm so excited to finally get to write them into the story. Whoever can guess who the new employee is gets a point lol And !!! next chapter you'll get to meet a little cutie so look forward to that too! LOL) Bye guys!!