The conference room was empty and Jinki sat silently in his seat, where he would have a direct view of the door. It was quiet, and he thumbed the edges of his papers idly, glad for the rare moment of peace as he waited for the rest of the suits to troop in. His Bluetooth was still in his ears though, and as Jinki moved to take it out, it blasted to life suddenly. But Jinki did not jump. Not even a muscle in his face moved, because he was a professional and there was a CCTV in the room.

And also because he had the niggling feeling Jonghyun or Taemin would do precisely this to him.

“Hyung!” the voice was far too loud, “Hyung!”

Jinki rested his head in his hands, and moved them so that they blocked the view of his mouth. It wasn’t that he particularly wanted to humour the call, but he knew if he didn’t, this shouting down of his eardrums would continue for the next ten minutes. Jinki mumbled gruffly, “No need to shout.”

“So you aren’t sleeping,” Jonghyun did not sound the least bit contrite, “We thought you were.”

“I was just resting.”

“The cameras weren’t moving for a while and I didn’t bother accessing their network.”

“I just came into this room 2 minutes ago.”

“Oh. Well, it’s not good to sleep on the job. Would leave a bad impression on the boss.”

“Which part of ‘I was just resting’ you didn’t understand?”

“Were your eyes closed, hyung?”

“My eyes were opened and I was looking at the door.”

“Wow. Well done, hyung, you follow the codes really well. Taemin and I are so proud of y—“

“Cut it out,” Jinki interrupted sharply as the level of insincerity in Jonghyun’s tone was starting to grate of his nerves, “What do you want?”

There was some rustling over the Bluetooth and the sound of plastic clacking onto hardwood. After a muted tussle (Jinki could hear Taemin’s garbled protests in the background), Jonghyun’s voice was replaced by Taemin’s.

“Hey, Jinki-hyung.” Taemin sounded positively cheerful.

“The meeting is scheduled to start in 7 minutes.”

There was a moment of confusion on the other side of the line, and Taemin asked “Huh? You mean it’s already late by 45 minutes?”

“Meetings never start on time. But since it is supposed to start at 6pm, it means it will start at 7pm. And now it’s already 6.53pm, so you better say what you have to or you wouldn’t get another chance till—“

“Hyung, what happened in the room?” the false cheer in Taemin’s voice was replaced by unbridled curiosity.

“What room?”

“You know, earlier in the morning, when the Kibum dude was about to smash your head in because you whored your way into Choi’s pants.”

There were a lot of good points about Taemin, Jinki was sure. He was probably a nice, honest kid who loved his mother very much and wanted to do good things for the world. But at that moment, the tip of Jinki’s mouth twitched and the look in his eyes shifted (to a murderous glint, perhaps). Too honest, he was honest to a point where Jinki felt like t—

Stop, Jinki told himself, he would not go there. It was one thing to wish your subordinates onto other people, but a whole other thing altogether to wish particularly nasty and violent deaths to them. And Jinki was a gentle man, he was a good guy, so he would not jinx them to death despite the fact that they probably deserved it a hundred folds over.

Jinki breathed in and out shallowly thrice (the CCTV was still there). “Taemin, if I hear that sort of words from your mouth again, I am confiscating your phone.”

“Hyung! Why? And you can’t do that, I am an independent adult!”

“And I will confiscate your credit and debit cards too. So don’t dream of getting new ones any time soon.”

“Hyung, it was all Jonghyun-hyung’s fault! He was the one who said tha—“ Loud thumps and a painful yell cut off Taemin’s words and Jinki could feel a migraine oncoming. The stress of being in an espionage mission, oh goodness, the stress.

(“, don’t you push the blame on me, you brat!”

“Just sacrifice yourself for once, Jonghyun-hyung! You are old, and I am young, and I have a bright future ahead of me! Think of the society!”

“Go yourself, Lee Taemin! Did you just call me old?”

“You are—“)

“Guys,” Jinki sighed. It was amazing how quickly the anger in him dissipated and weariness took over instead, “Guys. Just shut up, ok?”

The tumult over the Bluetooth slowed before it finally stopped, with the exception of a few meaty slaps sounding once in a while.

“I did not, and I repeat, I did not myself into anyone’s pants. Minho was the one who approached me first. And I only accepted him so as to facilitate the mission, alright?”

“But you tore them apart, right? That Kibum du—“ Taemin responded immediately.

“No, they dated for half a year and broke up—it was a messy break up and Kim Kibum was the one who initiated it apparently. But now he is back and wants to return to how they were initially, but I am in the way, so he is kind of pissed.”

Silence reigned. Finally, Taemin spoke, and the disappointment in his voice was so obvious Jinki could nearly imagine the crestfallen expression on his face. “You mean they weren’t childhood friends who like almost dated forever but were torn apart because that Kibum dude had to fly overseas to take care of his ailing grandparents while Choi waited for him here?”

Another silence elapsed.

“What in the world have you been watching, Taemin?” Jinki was left half flabbergasted and half amused, “Jonghyun, you have to take him off TV. It’s rotting his brains.” 

TV-- food for the soul.

... Or maybe not.