Sehun walked to his office, humming cheerfully to himself. Today was one of those rare mornings where he had woken up early before his alarm, but didn’t go back to sleep. He had sat up, a smile automatically forming onto his lips. Min Jung’s outfit that he had picked out according to his mood was a cheerful white spring dress, with floral lace decking the bottom. He was feeling so good he decided to drop by a tea shop for an herbal blend instead of his usual stop at a cafe. Each step he took had an extra enthusiastic bounce to it and his body automatically danced to the radio in the car. That night, Jongin drove over to Sehun’s house after getting a paint job.

He fumbled in his pocket to grab his key card before swiping it to enter the dark office. He walked over to the shades and opened them, letting in the rising sun light the room. He took a sip of his herbal tea before setting it down.

“I think I could get used to this,” he said, reading the name of the tea shop.

This was his first time getting to work so early in nearly two years. He had forgotten how beautiful the view of the city looked. He turned his attention to the time on his phone. Luhan usually arrived an hour after his usual time. Luhan wouldn't be there anytime soon. He put his phone back in his pocket, with his cup of tea in hand, walked over to the couch for a more comfortable seat. As he got closer, something caught his eyes. On the floor was a piece of paper crumbled. Swearing he had seen it before, he picked it up and sat down, laying far back into the couch.

The moment he was going to open it, there was a knock on the door. It seemed to be rushed as if someone was in an emergency. He quickly put everything down and went to the door. Again, the designer felt a rush of anxiousness rise to his chest, but as he opened the door, there stood his other secretary.

“Good Morning Mr.Oh! I realized your car was here so I decided to come greet you. By the way, I think I dropped something here yesterday before you and Luhan left. Is it okay if I check?”

“Sure. Go ahead…” he said, while stepping aside.

She bowed politely before making way to the couch. Her eyes trailed to the crumpled paper and tea cup sitting side by side. “Mr. Oh, would it be okay if I check this? It might be mine…”

Sehun nodded, though he himself was curious about its contents but as she looked and gave an unsatisfied look, he lost the thought. “Was that not the paper?”

She shook her head and shot the paper ball straight into the trashcan. Sehun was impressed at her accuracy from such a far distance. Then he remembered something important.

“Su Hyun, we need to talk.” He walked past her to pick up his cup of tea before walking over to the windows. She walked closer, facing him from across his desk.

“Yes?”

“You’re originally from Mr. Park’s department right? I was thinking that you should go back. Luhan was originally hired for the sole purpose of being my secretary whereas you were hired for one specific job and I’m not trying to say that you’re not doing your job. You work very well and diligently but I feel it doesn’t do any justice for Luhan. He doesn’t do much and I worry it might cause conflicts.” He turned back to her and wasn’t surprised by her somewhat sour look.

“So...I’m being sent back to my department? I mean...when am I going back?”

“Well, I’ve talked to Mr. Park about you and he says that whenever I deem the time is right.”

She looked a bit thrown off about the fact that they had talked about her. “And when is that going to be?” Her voice began to sound offended and Sehun started feeling a bit guilty for being the cause.

“I was thinking soon. Right now, times aren’t busy. Mr. Do and I already finished our spring collection designs and we’re in a stage of editing which is the easiest part. I do not want to rob you of your time when you could actually be doing something and not have to constantly wait for me to get to the office.”

“Its fine for me! I don’t find it troublesome at all! Besides, weren’t secretaries hired for you because you had an injury? Does that mean Luhan is going to lose his job as well?”

Sehun had to hold in the urge to sigh. He wanted more than anything to not sound biased towards his choice but she was making it hard not to. “True,” he paused before carefully thinking his words through, “ However, in this company, you have a job and that job is not to be my secretary. You have a specific job you were hired for and if you’re not able to do your job, I am robbing you of something. It doesn’t matter if you don’t mind, you must go back to your original position. Of course, if you were to apply for the position as my secretary, you would have the chance. But that means you must work your original job plus as my secretary to make things fair. Only if Luhan happened to quit. The CEO himself selected Luhan for this position.”

Su Hyun looked a bit mad, sad and shocked for about a minute. Sehun didn’t want it to sound as if he was trying to get rid of her in his life, though he would feel much more comfortable if she kept a safe distance. “So...today will be my last day?”

Sehun nodded. “Don’t worry. You can still drop by if you want to say hi on your free time or if we see each other in the building. I don’t mind…”

He let out a breath when she began to smile again. He was already regretting his words for not being thorough enough. “Well, if you say that, then I’m fine with it. I’ll make sure I work to my best!” He chuckled nervously before taking another sip of the herbal tea. He was already starting to forget the feeling of the peaceful and positive energy he had starting from the moment he woke up. Even the tea was beginning to taste too bland for him.

“Is it okay if you check all the intern applications and filter them? I know you might need a computer and I still haven’t set up a secretary office but do you have a desk somewhere?”

“Yes I do! I still have my desk in my department. I’ll come back once I’m done. See you later Mr. Oh!” She smiled and bowed once before leaving.

Sehun kept his back straight before she closed the door behind her. He dropped his guard, and  breathed deeply. He was surrounded by so much men and to be more clear, men who were attracted to each other, that being near women almost scared him. He tried to take another sip of tea, but there was no more. He walked over to the trash to throw it out. It was emptied except for the crumpled sheet of paper. He felt disgusting but his curiosity had the best of him. He picked it up and was about to open it up when he heard a terrible scream. He perked up and stopped what he was doing as someone knocked on the door.

Luhan woke up extremely early that day. He felt horrible that night. When he had gotten home, Mr. Thao explained to him that Minseok was fired for intervening in “personal family issues”. Because Minseok never told Luhan’s father about the cream for his back after discovering a little tube of it in his room, he became enraged. He took everything from the chef’s room and threw it out the window. Luhan had arrived right after his father had left for a party.

He felt extremely crappy and guilty that it was hard to fall asleep, even though he had had a wonderful day with Sehun and his social circle. He decided to get up early and go hang around the bar in the company building. He needed somewhere far from his home. As he was going to work, the sun had only begun rising. Mr. Thao wasn’t even awake when he walked out of the door.

Once he reached the building, his eyes automatically fixated onto the special VIP parking space reserved for Oh Sehun. He felt a pump of adrenaline when he saw the sleek and shiny black car parked there.

“He’s here…” he whispered. It was the first time he had ever seen Sehun come so early. Usually he arrived before Sehun but he would leave because he had nothing to do. By the time he finds his way back to the company after getting lost in the unfamiliar streets of Seoul, he would get back about an hour after Sehun had arrived.

He made way past the doors and greeted the receptionists before getting on the elevator. He felt extremely uneasy riding it by himself. Whenever he was ever in one by himself, his mind would think of all the bad things that could happen. The elevator might stop out of nowhere because of a malfunction or the lights would turn off and he’d be stuck in the dark. He was paranoid, while staring at nothing but the numbers indicating the floor he was on. He was almost hysterical with paranoia when he was about two floors away from his destination. Once the doors opened, he sped out, almost tripping over his own feet. His heart was pumping quickly, his only thoughts were on Sehun. He wanted to just have another human being nearby to give assurance of safety.

Reaching Sehun’s door, he was about to knock when he heard voices. He wondered who else could be there so early and before thinking, he automatically pressed his ears against the door and listened.

“Does that mean Luhan is going to lose his job as well?”

“True…”

Luhan’s doe eyes opened nearly twice its size. He recognized the female voice to be Su Hyun’s. He heard them speaking still so he continued listening.

“But that means you must work your original job plus as my secretary to make things fair…”

He bit his bottom lip as he quickly ran off towards the elevator. His heart was feeling weird while there was a sting in his eyes.

He doesn’t want me to work for him anymore?

Staring at the elevator numbers, it showed that someone was coming up to the same floor so he waited until it stopped. He stood for a couple of minutes before the doors slid open with a ding. To his surprise, there was no one in the elevator, sending chills throughout his body. His immediate reaction was to run. He ran towards the lounge room that Sehun and his group liked to hang out in during their breaks. He secretly hoped that one of them was working overtime, only to remember that Baekhyun and Kyungsoo were over at Sehun’s last night and that Jongin and Chanyeol rarely did over night stays.

He felt another chill when he heard footsteps coming closer from the direction he came from. Entering the lounge room by sliding his key card, he stood behind the door so that whatever it was that was walking by didn’t see him.

He felt like he was being a bit ridiculous for being paranoid but he couldn’t help it. Just when he was going to relax, a rat the size of forearm crawled from under the table and scrambled near his foot. He screamed an almost blood-curdling one before he rushed out, initially bumping into Su Hyun. He apologized before running again, this time knocking onto Sehun’s office door, trying hard not to make it sound rushed or angered.

Sehun put the crumpled paper in his pocket before sighing. He honestly thought it was Su Hyun again, asking for something else. The knocking started to become more frantic as he neared the door. When he opened, he was not prepared to see Luhan standing there, his face pale and looking as if he had seen a ghost. Luhan stepped in as calm as he could, but Sehun could tell he was trying his all not to jump into the room and under a blanket.

“What's wrong Luhan?” asked Sehun, closing the door behind. Alarmed at Luhan’s sudden collapse onto the floor, he knelt down beside him with one hand going to his shoulder.

“Its...it’s nothing. I think I’m just being really paranoid right now…”

Sehun raised an eyebrow in confusion. Luhan went on to explain his experience with the elevator and the anonymous footsteps behind him including the huge rat encounter in the lounge, careful to leave out the part of eavesdropping. Sehun took a moment to absorb it all in, trying hard himself not to be paranoid.

“I’m sorry for being childish...but I think I’ll excuse myself from elevators from now on unless I’m with someone.”

Sehun chuckled, helping a shaky Luhan to the couch. “But wouldn’t the stairs be twice as creepy? You would have to run and what if the lights turned off and you couldn’t see where you were going or in what direction someone or something was coming towards you?”

Luhan shivered at the thought. “I guess I’ll just have to move between floors by flying out the windows…” For a second, Luhan was seriously contemplating that. Sehun, however laughed and began to ease. The flavor of the herbal tea on his tongue turning sour.

“Guess I should make some wind for turbulence then,” said Sehun jokingly. Luhan nodded, not even kidding. He took off his backpack and dug through his bag. He tried looking for his usual little white paper bag that had candy. Once he found the bag crushed all the way at the bottom, to his dismay, there was nothing in it. He forgot to go buy more at a store. Sehun noticed all the way from across the room that Luhan looked a bit sad without any chocolate. He rummaged through his desk to see if he had spared any that Luhan had given him a while back. To his disappointment, he didn’t have any left and felt kind of bad.

He then finally remembered the paper ball crumpled in his pocket. Taking it out, he felt the chinese male’s eyes trail to his actions. He opened it and read his name before he felt Luhan tackle him from the side.

“I’m sorry Sehun! Please give that to me!”

Sehun stood up, lifting the paper high up above them both so that Luhan couldn’t reach. Unfortunately, Luhan was only a couple inches shorter than him, thus making it hard for Sehun to keep it away from him. Luhan had one hand on the arm with the other trying to grab the paper all the while jumping. Sehun found great joy from this and began to tease Luhan.

“What is so important about this piece of paper anyways? It shouldn’t be such a big problem.”

Luhan ignored him, his mind focused only on grabbing the paper back. He knew exactly who that piece of paper belonged to. Not only that, he knew immediately what the contents in it was. If Sehun saw it, he would definitely fire him. With one bold jump, he ripped the paper out of Sehun’s hands, leaving only the corner piece with nothing written on it. Luhan took refuge by the door and crumpled up the ball before shoving it into his pockets. He let out a relieved sigh before looking back at Sehun.

“Sorry...but I don’t want you to see that…” He nodded in understanding, though curiosity burned through his core. “By the way, you’re here early today. Anything special going on?” asked Luhan innocently. He safely made his way over to the couch and sat down. Sehun took note that he had a manly way of sitting.

“You know, I was thinking that maybe today I should get you a room...or a desk. I don’t want you to feel so awkward on my couch all the time.”

Luhan nodded and was going to ask something but decided not to in the end. He checked the time on his phone. He just received a text from a random number. He found no harm in checking it.

From: (000)-000-0000

Hey, its me

Luhan looked confused for a bit, slightly tilting his head to the side.

From: Luhan

Who is this?

Without waiting for a reply, he put it back into his pocket and watched as Sehun dug through his messy desk for his sketchbooks.

"Sehun, did you want or need me to do anything?"

"No," he said, eyebrows furrowing as he tried to find a missing color pencil, "Just stay by my side."

Luhan felt his chest erratically pumping. He reprimanded himself for thinking such weird thoughts when there wasn't any other reason within those words. "I- I'm going to take a breather for a bit."

Without waiting for a reply, he quickly left the room and leaned against the door. He closed his eyes and counted backwards in his mind from twenty, something he could remember doing since he was a kid. His mother, he remembered specifically was the one who told him to calm down, counting from twenty and down. No matter who or wgst tries to interact with him, would be ignored.

Twenty...nineteen...eighteen...

His phone vibrates in his pocket.

“Luhan, just calm down okay? Count down from twenty…”

Fourteen... thirteen...

It continues vibrating against his thigh as the elevator ding echoes throughout the hallway.

“Keep going, you’re doing good…” The women with the long black ponytail stands up straight. Her eyes twinkling proudly at him.

Nine...eight...seven...

He hears footsteps coming out if the elevator but he did not budge.

“Almost there…”

Three...two...one…

“Luhan is a good boy. Come on…” Her hand gently pats the top of his head, taking his hand and leading him off.

He opened his chocolate honey eyes, only to see another pair of wide eyes staring back at him. He screamed, and was going to slam right back into the door. Before he could, the door flew open and luhan fell into a pair of unsuspecting arms. He could hear Sehun's small grunt as they collided and color pencils dropping and rolled to every corner. He now clearly saw that those eyes belonged to no one other than Kyungsoo.

"What's wrong Luhan?" He eyed both Sehun and Luhan because of their position. Luhan finally seemed to notice how awkward it was. He scrambled to out of Sehun's arms and a few feet away from them.

"S-Sorry Sehun..."

Kyungsoo and Sehun laughed. Slowly after realizing they weren't going to stop any time soon, he bent down to pick up all of Sehun’s fallen art supplies. He wasn’t worried about how rude he could’ve seemed to the other two. The memory that he was able to recover just now was giving him unbearable feelings. He felt like he wanted to cry, retch and faint all at once. A lump slowly forming in his throat as he quickened his pace of picking up the pencils. He could tell the other two were helping, the occasionally bumping of the hands. He swallowed, bracing himself to look Sehun in the eyes.

“Are you okay Luhan?” asked Kyungsoo. He put his hand automatically to his forehead and kept it there, as if trying to determine if a fever had gotten to him. “Apparently the stomach flu has been going around on the ninth floor and thats where Chanyeol is usually when he isn’t working.”

Luhan chuckled to reassure him that he was fine. Sehun stood up, the last of the supplies picked up as Luhan handed him his sketchbook.

“Hyung...is it okay with your if Luhan stays with you for a while? I’m going to get him an office so he’s not awkwardly on my couch all the time.”

Kyungsoo nodded and immediately latched arms with Luhan, which caused an unwanted twitch on the left side of his nose. “Call when you’re done, but take your time.”

Luhan let himself be dragged away.

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AN: I noticed its starting to kind of become drabble-like! But I did provide some subtle hints that are extremely important LOL Thanks for reading everybody! School is killing me and I don't have time to update T.T