“And this year, the award for the highest sales goes to, once again, Kim Sunggyu!”

Perfunctory applause rings through the hall as Kim Sunggyu, the eyesore, strides up to the stage to take his trophy and cheque for a hefty bonus from the Chairman of the company. All the other employees look on with fake smiles as their ties tighten around their necks – that bastard, Kim Sunggyu, how does anyone manage to sell the most four years running?

Woohyun groans internally, watching the annoying, but also incredibly handsome face of Kim Sunggyu, lighting up with camera flashes. That sick bastard is gloating, no doubt. He could see how Sunggyu sees all of them – as inferior to himself. It is such a pain that he’s proved right every year.

Trying to juggle all the bouquets he’s received from all the bigshots of the company, who are all beaming at him like fond schoolteachers, Sunggyu walks to the podium to deliver his victory speech. He says the same thing every year, Woohyun and everyone else has it memorized.

Woohyun’s insides burn as the disgusting hippopotamus opens his mouth.

“As I’ve told my colleagues here before, if you want to accomplish something, you have to stop thinking that you’re selling houses. I always say that I don’t sell houses, I-”

“Sell dreams,” Woohyun completes under his breath, gnashing his teeth.

The room erupts in applause, mostly to please the higher-ups. They have to pretend that they idolize their golden boy and are striving to become like him.

It’s not like Woohyun doesn’t work hard. He works long hours, sometimes even on weekends. He travels, turns on his charms, speaks to people for hours. His numbers are not bad either – he’s sold 15 condos in one day even! But somehow, he can never beat Sunggyu.

All the awards and speeches end and everyone files out of the ballroom to the dining hall. This is what the employees are truly here for – dinner at a 5-star restaurant. Some of them can afford to buy this dinner, of course, but there is a completely different taste when something is free. Woohyun doesn’t care about free dinners however; he’s here to up to his bosses and glare at Sunggyu.

Here he comes, Kim Sunggyu, in all his glory. He’s escorting a girl, his girlfriend. Apparently, she’s one of the director’s daughter. He knows what she sees in him, but what does he see in her?

For no reason, Woohyun starts to get angrier. He’s already angry because Kim Sunggyu beat him, again, and because Kim Sunggyu looks very handsome in a tuxedo. All odds are against him tonight.

Their eyes meet briefly, for a couple of seconds. Woohyun has an urge to look away immediately but for some reason, Sunggyu doesn’t and he’s mesmerized. Just then, a figure comes between the two, blocking his view.

“Woohyunnie!” Yura shouts, grabbing his arm forcefully. “I was looking for you!”

Someone has told Yura that a bouquet of flowers left on her table was from Woohyun. Woohyun had politely denied at first, then vehemently explained that it wasn’t him, but she wouldn’t budge. She thinks he’s just shy, even though he’s never shown any signs of that.

“Ah hi Yura,” he says absentmindedly, looking around her to look for Sunggyu. He’s gone.

“What are you looking for?”

“Not you,” he laughs nervously; he doesn’t want to talk to her tonight but he’s never been rude to a girl. His mother taught him better.

“Damn that Kim Sunggyu, huh?” Sungyeol’s huge body appears out of nowhere, a lanky arm snakes around his shoulder. He couldn’t be more relieved. Although Sungyeol can be exhausting, he would take that over everything else currently happening. “How does he even – like does he seduce his customers or something?”

“He’s so good, no wonder he’s dating the director’s daughter,” Yura chips in.

For a brief period, Woohyun thinks about Kim Sunggyu seducing his customers while Sungyeol chats with Yura. Then he thinks about Kim Sunggyu seducing him – how fun would that be?

“I heard that he’s got this y eye thing he does that hits its mark every time,” Sungyeol is saying when Woohyun is dragged back to the present.

“What y eye thing?” Woohyun asks without even thinking.

“How would I know?” Sungyeol shrugs. “Didn’t you shadow him before?”

When Woohyun had first entered the company, he had been assigned to shadow Sunggyu as a part of his training but it had lasted only a day – and the day had consisted of watching the elder fill in paper work; he hadn’t even left the office.

After that, he’s seen Sunggyu around but the elder pretended they had never met. Once or twice, Woohyun had greeted him, trying to get chummy with him but he’s only been met with cold resistance.

“Can we talk about something else?” Woohyun says, looking around the room.

“Why do we have to talk? Let’s eat!” Sungyeol suggests with gusto and Yura nods.

They make their way towards the long buffet line that winds around the dining hall like a giant live serpent. Sungyeol and Yura are in front of him, gossiping about the director’s daughter as Woohyun straightens his tie – it’s his favourite tie, white with a black rose towards the midsection.

When he hears voices behind him, he looks up, turns around, and is face to face with the devil himself!

A little gasp escapes his lips, audible no doubt, since Sunggyu, who's turned slightly sideways, speaking to his girlfriend, rounds on him. Their eyes meet a second time, and once again Sunggyu doesn’t look away. Woohyun bows his head slightly in greeting, Sunggyu follows.

“Congratulations!” Woohyun murmurs, mainly because he’s embarrassed.

“Oh, who’s this?” Sunggyu’s girlfriend has an unusually high-pitched voice that doesn’t go with her warm soft features.

“This is Nam Woohyun, a junior sales associate.”

Woohyun is so shocked that Sunggyu remembers his name that he doesn’t even correct him – he’s not a junior sales associate anymore.

“Nice to meet you, I’m Lee Euna.”

She extends a hand that Woohyun doesn’t shake because he’s still staring at Sunggyu.

All three of them are at a loss of words and they all look away at the same time – it’s comical. Woohyun turns back, breathing deeply, hoping to disappear into nothing. He can feel the heat of Sunggyu’s body behind him. He’s never hated another man so much. Why did he have to make a fool of him in front of the director’s daughter?

When he reaches the table, he piles some food onto his plate without even properly looking and runs away as fast as he can, not looking back. Avoiding the directors' table, he steers around the crowd and finds a neglected table and sits down. He doesn’t have much of an appetite. Morosely, he picks at his food. He honestly doesn’t know what’s so special about Lee Euna – is Sunggyu in love with her?

He barely socializes - anger, embarrassment and frustration builds inside of him. He’d seen Sunggyu smile once, he wasn’t sure exactly why the elder had been laughing, perhaps he'd heard a funny joke or something. It was a beautiful sight – like butterflies-in-stomach, rose-blooming, bird-singing kind of beautiful. That’s a sight he would pay to see again, especially now, when he felt so … mad.

Making good use of the free champagne helps to disperse some of his frustrations, he feels numb. However, all the excess liquid in his body makes itself known as he realizes he needs to use the bathroom. Getting to his feet, he takes a moment to steady himself before marching towards the toilet. Sungyeol tells him something but he waves him off.

Yura suddenly appears out of nowhere and clutches his arm.

“I’m going to the toilet,” he announces.

“Me too!” Yura seems to have made good use of the free champagne as well.

“We’re going to different toilets though.”

“Why?”

Sighing, he just continues down the corridor. There’s less people here and soon they’ve left the crowd behind and it’s just the two of them. Why are the toilets so far away, he muses. Yura’s putting more and more of her weight on him; he’s in no mood to be chivalrous. He plots about where to dump her when he sees some people coming their way. Maybe he can hand her over to them. He chuckles a bit.

As they get closer, he sees that it’s just two people, a couple like them – they look quite drunk. He can’t dump Yura on a couple and ruin their night. Sighing, he lets her rest her head on his shoulder. The couple crosses them, and suddenly, he feels a tug at his hand.

For a second, he thinks it’s Yura but she’s on his other side. Confused, he looks down at his hand and finds it held in another, bigger hand. He follows the arm linked to the hand and turns slightly. The arm belongs to the man of the couple that just passed by -they've stopped for some reason - and that man is none other than…

“Kim Sunggyu,” he whispers, amazed. Sunggyu is looking at him, sternly, for some reason.

Euna has noticed by now and looks confused.

“She looks quite drunk,” Sunggyu says, nodding towards Yura. Woohyun had almost forgotten her. “Shall we make an exchange?”

Before Woohyun could answer, and he’d would have answered that he’s not going to make any deals with the devil, Sunggyu pulled Woohyun towards him in one smooth jerk. Somehow, he detached Yura, who's draped over Woohyun at this point, from him and gently put her on Euna, like someone puts a blanket over a sofa. 
Then he links arms with Woohyun and sends the two girls off with a wave of the hand.

To his amazement, Woohyun finds he’s walking again, being led by Sunggyu. Kim – wait what – Sunggyu!

“Wha-what just happened?” he muses out loud.

“She’s not your girlfriend, is she? I hope you don’t mind?” Sunggyu says calmly.

“I – don’t - mind?”

“Good.” He takes his question for an answer.

“Wait…what?”

“What?”

“Why did you – when – what’s,” Woohyun stammers.

“Are you okay?” Sunggyu sounds worried.

“No,” Woohyun states.

“What’s wrong?” Sunggyu stops and looks him over.

“Uhh…I need the toilet.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, I’m dying!”

Without warning, Sunggyu breaks into laughter. His laughter, as expected, is melodic. And beautiful - butterflies-in-stomach, rose-blooming, bird-singing, tear-inducing kind of beautiful. It however doesn’t prevent the flood that’s waiting to break the dam inside of him.

“I really need to pee.”

Sunggyu escorts him to the toilet, where he relieves himself. For a blissful minute, he’s unaware of everything else. Then he remembers what just happened. Sunggyu watches him washing his hand. It’s kind of embarrassing. Their eyes meet in the mirror and Woohyun looks away.

He feels a lot sober, partly from shock and partly from the fact that Kim Sunggyu is holding his hand while they walk away from the toilets.

“So-err…”

“It was a good exchange, don’t you think?”

“Uhh…”

“Nam Woohyun,” Sunggyu suddenly becomes serious. “I had to stop you from making the biggest mistake of your life.”

“Which is…?”

“Sleeping with Kwon Yura.”

“I wasn’t even – why is that the biggest mistake of my life?” Woohyun is so confused but he’s also angry because he’s standing here, hearing Sunggyu lecture him about his life. What does he know about Woohyun?

“Because you like me,” he replies, unabashed. It’s as if it’s a universally accepted fact.

“Excuse me?” he asks indignantly. Its true, but he hasn’t exactly advertised it. And also he hates Sunggyu, so...

“Because you like me,” Sunggyu repeats in the same assured voice. “I’ve seen you look at me, all the time. You’re a clever boy, I’m a good investment.”

He hates being called a boy, and he also hates Sunggyu, but he loves that they are holding hands, standing here, away from everyone else.

“You have a girlfriend,” he points out.

“I’m going to let her go, put her back on the market.”

“Because of me?” Woohyun is dubious.

Sunggyu throws his head back and laughs.

“Of course, because of you.”

“Why?” Woohyun’s stumped.

“Because you’re a better investment.”

“Eww, are you flirting with me in sales terms?” Woohyun looks revolted but he enjoys it slightly.

“I’ll flirt with you in whatever language you want me to. I know 13 languages. Or I could let something else do the talking.”

“Wha-” Before he could finish his sentence, Sunggyu plants a kiss on his mouth, maneuvers his tongue skillfully across his lips and into his mouth and it’s all so quick and pleasant that Woohyun doesn’t protest. Besides, this is what he’s been dreaming off for the past few years, every night; this and punching Sunggyu’s face until it becomes flat.

Their hands find each other and interlock naturally, like they’ve done it before. The space between them diminishes and Woohyun is aware of Sunggyu’s cologne but no alcohol. So the elder isn’t just drunk.

When they finally break away, Woohyun is both panting and impressed.

“So that’s how you seal the deal, huh?”

“Sometimes.”

When Woohyun’s eyes widen, Sunggyu laughs.

“I’m joking. You’re wonderfully gullible.”

“And you’re…” There are so many things Woohyun wants to say, all of them rude and insulting. But this is going somewhere, maybe, and he doesn’t want to ruin it.
“You should probably know though, that I hate you.”

It’s Sunggyu’s turn to widen his eyes – doesn’t have the same effect.

“I thought you-”

“I love you. But I also hate you,” Woohyun explains.

“Okay,” Sunggyu says slowly, as if trying to churn the numbers in his head. “So, does that mean a yes or a no?”

“A yes or no to what?”

“Will you go out with me?”

Woohyun blinks.

“Are you serious?”

“Do you need me to kiss you again?”

“Yes, I’d need you to do that,” Woohyun says solemnly. “But my answer won’t change.”

“This is why you don’t sell anything, you confuse your customers, give them mixed signals.”

“God, I hate you,” Woohyun groans. “I’ll have you know I sold 15 condos in one day-”

Visibly frustrated, Sunggyu shuts him up with another kiss. This time it’s longer, more passionate.

“Since when have you liked me?” Woohyun asks. He still can't believe that Kim Sunggyu knows him, let alone likes him. It's not something that happens everyday, or at all, for that matter.

“Since the day I met you.”

“For 4 years you just…watched me watch you?”

“I needed to make sure it wasn’t just a crush or a silly infatuation,” Sunggyu shakes his head. “Like any good investor-”

“Oh, shut up before I hate you even more.” This time, Woohyun kisses him and notices with satisfaction that Sunggyu doesn’t resist. He’s kissing the employee-of-the-year, what sweet revenge. Although he’s not sure how this construes as revenge, but whatever. After all, he loves this man, no matter how much he hates him.

Poster by: ❝GOLDFISH❞ ◌ Graphics Shop