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“I can’t believe Hyukjae has such a nice assistant,” the girl said with a flirtatious smile. “I mean, how could you meet someone like him? Why would you work for him?”

Kyuhyun raised an eyebrow, looking up from the menu. “Someone like him?” he asked curious and the girl let out a girly and suddenly annoying laugh.

“Yeah,” she chuckled. “I mean, he’s so boring to be with, and he isn’t even cute,” she said.

“Well, I have fun being with him,” Kyuhyun said firmly, making the girl laugh loudly.

“Oh, come on,” the girl chuckled. “Why don’t you work for me instead?” she asked, smiling at him ever so sweetly that Kyuhyun was starting to hate it. “I’ll pay you twice what he pays you,” she smiled, lifting two of her slender fingers to make his point.

Kyuhyun frowned. “I don’t work for him for the money,” he said, letting the menu down.

“I know, but believe me, you will have so much fun with me than him,” the girl said, winking at Kyuhyun who simply chuckled.

“Is it?” Kyuhyun asked, making the girl’s eyes beam with satisfaction.

“Of course,” she said, smiling.

Kyuhyun nodded and stood up. “Well, I’m sorry to tell you this, but in the last twenty minutes that I’ve been here with you, I’ve been thinking on how bored I am,” he said, so sweetly that it didn’t sound as offensive as it was. “Even watching Hyukjae sleep is ten times better than this, so please excuse me, I’ll have to leave and meet my boss,” he smiled softly, straightening his back before walking out from the restaurant.

He didn’t care about anything else. He just walked out, paid for the glass of wine they had and went out, looking around until he spotted his car, sighing deeply and walking towards it.

Hyukjae was going out, motioning Duck to go out too when they saw Kyuhyun walking towards them. “Kyuhyun?” Hyukjae called confused and looked at his watch. “What are you doing here?”

Kyuhyun chuckled and shook his head. “She said she had something to do suddenly,” he lied and Hyukjae nodded.

“Well, she must be busy,” Hyukjae sighed and pointed at the park in front of the restaurant. “I was about to walk around with Duck, let’s go together.”

Kyuhyun looked at Hyukjae, at his sweet smile and his expressive eyes. He smiled and nodded. “Let’s go.”

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Kyuhyun opened his eyes when he felt Duck his face and he groaned, pushing the dog’s head away from him. “Seriously,” he grumbled, sitting up and glaring at the dog before turning around to look at Hyukjae, raising an eyebrow when he didn’t see the small man by his side. “Hyukjae?” He called, turning around just to make sure the other wasn’t in the room.

He went to slide the curtains open, sighing because Hyukjae wasn’t hiding in there as sometimes he did. He saw the door of the bathroom opened and walked in, sighing softly.

“Hyukjae?” he called louder, going out from his room to walk around his apartment, not finding a trace of Hyukjae at all.

Duck followed him close, already wanting to go out to walk.

Kyuhyun frowned, palming his thighs to check on his phone and groaning when he couldn’t find it. He turned around and walked to his room, taking the device from the bedside table, only to see he had a text from Hyukjae. ‘I had something to do, let’s meet in a few days.’

“What?” Kyuhyun frowned, quickly typing his reply. ‘Days? You know I could have taken you there, right?’

The reply didn’t come as soon as Kyuhyun wished and he groaned annoyed. Days? What was he supposed to do in those days? Why would Hyukjae go away like that? The sudden thought of Hyukjae not wanting to be with him anymore crossed his mind and Kyuhyun felt himself getting panicked. Calm the down, Kyuhyun.

He waited for half an hour for a reply that didn’t come and he sent another text. ’Hyukjae? Is there something wrong?’

Another half an hour and Duck was already whining, begging for attention that Kyuhyun didn’t give, too focused on his screen waiting for Hyukjae to reply as to turn around and look at the door sitting in front of him bored.

It was until Duck barked loudly that Kyuhyun realized he had been staring idiotically at his phone for way too long and he needed to take Duck out if he didn’t want his furniture ruined. “Let’s go, buddy,” Kyuhyun ordered, grabbing his jacket and walking out from his apartment, holding his cell phone securely.

It was until Kyuhyun came back home that he heard his phone buzzing and he quickly checked the reply. ‘There’s nothing wrong. I just have to fix a few things and I didn’t want to bother so much.”

Kyuhyun snorted. It was ridiculous, simply because Kyuhyun had to literally do anything for Hyukjae. He was his boss, after all. It was illogic for Hyukjae to not want to bother him. ‘Hyukjae, I work for you, there’s no such thing as ‘bothering’ me.’

It took almost fifteen minutes for the next reply to come and Kyuhyun wondered if either Hyukjae was too busy, or he just didn’t want to reply anymore to him. He decided he liked the first one first. ‘Good, because I arranged a lot of dates for you, here’s the list:’ Kyuhyun chuckled and shook his head, because the next text was a list of at least ten persons he had to date in just four days. He sighed, shaking his head.

‘I’ll barely have time to do something else with so many dates a day,’ Kyuhyun replied, looking at the screen carefully as he went to the kitchen to feed Duck and also pour some milk and cereal into a bowl for himself.

The cereal was gone and Kyuhyun was sitting on the counter waiting for the reply. He felt so desperate to know about Hyukjae that he had to convince himself it was because he was excited about the dates he would have. ‘Shut, slave, you must do what I order you to,’ the reply said and Kyuhyun grinned widely, almost imagining Hyukjae trying to sound bossy.

‘Alright, but when will we meet again?’ Kyuhyun finally asked and strangely, the answer came just a few minutes after.

‘I don’t know but don’t relax too much either,’ Kyuhyun sighed, massaging his temple as he typed the reply and stopped when he saw another text from Hyukjae. ‘I don’t think I’ll be available from now on, Kyu, so take care of Duck and yourself, eat well and don’t do anything fun until you see me again. See you later! <3’

Kyuhyun raised an eyebrow at the text and replied quickly, because he wanted Hyukjae to be able to see his message. ‘You too, take care. There’s nothing fun if you’re not here anyway. Don’t take too long, Duck is missing you already.’ He looked at the screen intently, maybe, just maybe Hyukjae would reply.

He didn’t.

Even when Hyukjae told him he wouldn’t be available, Kyuhyun still expected to receive another text. So when he was in his afternoon date with a cute boy in front of him, he couldn’t help himself but glance at his cell phone every five minutes and at the end, getting ditched because he wasn’t even paying attention.

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Four days.

Kyuhyun was starting to get annoyed and frustrated. He had so much free time and he was so bored that he actually believed he would go insane at a certain point. He was starting to get anxious, looking at his phone and cursing loudly at it.

The dates didn’t help at all, because of them were too noisy and some others only talked about things Kyuhyun wasn’t really interested. The best was one of the girls that Kyuhyun guessed, was a close friend with Hyukjae since she would talk about the smaller quite a lot. Kyuhyun decided that was his favorite dates of all of them because at least now he got a picture of Hyukjae when he was in kindergarten.

His body was sprawled all over the carpeted floor of his living room and the most entertaining thing to do was to see how Duck’s abdomen would go up and down every time the dog breathed. He groaned in annoyance and lifted his phone up to at least do something in internet, whatever he could find.

He ended up looking for good international destinations.

Finally, Kyuhyun was engrossed into an activity, even if it was about staying sprawled on the floor with Duck’s tail flicking slightly on his head. Hyukjae’s name was showing up in his screen and Kyuhyun raised an eyebrow, slightly confused for a while before gasping, realizing that Hyukjae was calling him.

He took the cell phone to his ear and smiled widely. “Hyukjae?”

“Kyuhyun!” the smaller man called happily from the other line.

Kyuhyun’s smiled grew impossibly wider. “Hey,” he greeted warmly. “What do you think you are to leave me all alone like this?” he whined and he chuckled as he heard Hyukjae laughing softly in the other line.

“I’m sorry, Kyuhyun,” Hyukjae said, though Kyuhyun knew he was smiling as well. “But I’m your boss, you have to do everything I ask you to,” the other said and Kyuhyun chuckled.

“Alright, alright,” Kyuhyun waved his hand in the air as if Hyukjae could see him. “Are you done with whatever you had to do?”

Hyukjae stood silent for a few seconds before replying. “Almost,” he said softly. “Now I need you to come get me so you can go buy me some cheese pizza and let me sleep on your bed, I’m tired.”

Kyuhyun smiled warmly, standing up almost immediately before running to grab his keys and jacket, gently nudging the dog to follow him. “Where to?” He asked when he was already on his way down the lobby.

“I’ll send you a text with the address!” Hyukjae exclaimed happily. “Don’t take too long,” he said and just hung up.

Kyuhyun smiled, finally ready to do something. He drove off as soon as he got Hyukjae’s text.

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“You’re skinnier,” Kyuhyun noticed. “I didn’t know that was possible.”

Hyukjae pouted and crossed his arms over his chest. “Excuse you, I’m not skinny, I’m thin,” he nodded, glaring at Kyuhyun. “Why are those the first words you tell me after so long?”

Kyuhyun laughed softly and ruffled Hyukjae’s hair gently. “I’m sorry, Hyukjae, let’s go. I’ll buy you food.”

Hyukjae smiled and nodded, lifting his hands up. “Take me there, I’m really tired.”

Kyuhyun rolled his eyes but complied gladly anyway. He carried Hyukjae up to the car, realizing that in fact, Hyukjae was lighter. “What did you eat these days?” he asked, sounding so serious that Hyukjae was scared for a moment. “I don’t think you were eating well.”

Hyukjae looked away. “I wasn’t hungry,” he admitted. “So I didn’t eat.”

Kyuhyun sighed and shook his head, opening the door of his car before letting Hyukjae down on the passenger’s seat, letting Duck jump in on Hyukjae’s lap before going to the back seat.

Hyukjae laughed softly at the dog, looking how Kyuhyun closed the door of the car to go to the driver’s seat and look at him. “I’ll force you to eat twice what you ate before now,” he announced and Hyukjae smiled fondly, nodding his head.

“I won’t mind,” Hyukjae said, grinning widely as he put on his seat belt.

They drove towards Kyuhyun’s apartment as the taller called for pizza so it would arrive at the same time. Hyukjae dedicated himself to grin widely when he heard the words ‘familiar pizza, extra cheese’.

“You’re a good slave,” Hyukjae commented, grinning widely.

Kyuhyun chuckled. “I know,” he said as he focused on the road. “Hey Hyuk,” he called after a few minutes of silence.

Hyukjae bit his lower lip, liking how Kyuhyun gave him a pet name. “Yes?” he asked, looking at the taller’s profile as they stopped in a red light.

Kyuhyun turned slightly to face Hyukjae and dedicated the other a gentle smile. “I missed you.”

Hyukjae blushed softly. “I missed you, too.”

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