Baekhyun was a very friendly man. At least he liked to think so. But there was nothing friendly about avoiding all awkward conversations and stares between him and Mr. Snobbish for the past 5 hours they were stuck on the plane. Hell, if he had a parachute, he would have jumped out of that plane! That was how awkward it was for him. Maybe Jongdae would finally pat him on the back and feel sorry for him. But the problem was, he doesn't even remember what came spewing out of his mouth. 

He even banged his head on the taxi window and almost got evicted by the driver from trying to remember what exactly he said. Whatever he said, it must have been really stupid things - because Baekhyun tends to ramble out nonsense when he's under a lot of pressure. He just needs to get home, get changed and rest.

And be ready for work the next day. 

The guy is nothing but a stranger. 

He doesn't need to be so hung up on some unimportant things he told a stranger anyway.

He'll forgot all about it tomorrow, or maybe within a week or two, because he'll admit that it was that embarassing. 

"No."

"I'm sorry, what?"

Baekhyun just stared straight.

"Hey, Baek?" Jongdae waved his hand in front of Baekhyun, who seemed to be imitating a statue pretty well.

"Baekhyunnnn... Earth to Beak? Do you read?"

No answer.

"I repeat, do you re-" 

"Shut up, Jongdae!" 

Jongdae squinted. "Woah, no need to shout. I'm literally standing in front of you." 

"And, here, is our Fashion Department." Jongdae turned around to Joonmyun's voice. 

Joonmyun had a delegation of department heads and directors behind him with an incredibly tall person standing in front. 

"Oh hey, look, Joonie's acting all grown-up." Jongdae nudged Baekhyun who still seemed immobile. 

"You okay, Baek?" Jongdae shrugged, his friend was weird sometimes. 

"Oh hey, look, Luhan is there as well!" He stretched his arm out to signal to their ex-department mate only to have his side elbowed by Baekhyun.

"WHAT WAS THAT FOR!" Jongdae's loud screech definitely got everyone's attention.

Everyone stared at Jongdae. Well, Baekhyun hoped it would be everyone.

"Well, let me introduce you to 2 of our best team leaders. Kim Jongdae and Byun Baekhyun."

Jongdae bowed formally. Baekhyun just stared.

"What-the-hell-are-you-doing-Byun-BOW!" Jongdae hissed from the side and pinched Baekhyun's side to get him to bow. 

Baekhyun bent his body awkwardly and kept his head down. "By- Byun Baekhyun, sir."

Baekhyun never noticed that their office had carpeted floor before. Jongdae on the other hand, had no idea when his friend suddenly grew a shy demeanor. 

"Baekhyun, huh?"

Baekhyun kept his vision limited to that small red diamond that was part of the carpet's design. It was really pretty if you focused enough on it. 

"Mr. Park, we'll continue the tour with the department that's just one floor above. This way, please." 

Baekhyun vaguely heard the footsteps leaving their floor, only the tacking of work shoes echoing in the distance. "Are you done zoning out now, By- Byun Baekhyun?" Baekhyun glared at Jongdae. His friend had no right to make fun of him after the little heart attack he had during that brief enounter just now. 

He sighed. A long explanation was in order. But not in their cubicles.

"I don't understand why you gotta drag me all the way to the ground floor toilets. Not that I don't appreciate the little toilet break.. but- What the hell are you doing Byun?" Baekhyun kicked open all the toilet cubicles. "Great, no one's here." Jongdae frowned. His friend was getting weirder by the day. Baekhyun looked into the mirror, he looked like he just aged over the past 10 minutes. He hung his head over the sink. 

"You remember me telling you that I accidenly spilled all my life-long secrets, the kind that I would take to my grave, to a total stranger?" Jongdae raised an eyebrow, he wasn't seeing a connection. "I remember you telling me you screamed like a little girl during a little air turbulence. What does this have to do with anything?" Baekhyun squeezed his eyes tight. God give him the patience to not break the nose Jongdae spent 3 months of his paycheck on now. "Well, that, that guy that Joonmyun was speaking to, was that stranger." Jongdae's eyes widened. "You sure, Baekhyun? Are you very sure?" Baekhyun exploded. "Of course I am, you dimwit, I would recognise that anywhere!" He teethed every single word. Something was crawling at his skin, telling him that he just screwed up big time. There has to be a reason that was in his office, leading an entourage of managers. Maybe a client? A model? An external partner?

"You better buckle you seat and grow thicker skin then, Baekhyun. That '' is Park Chanyeol, the heir to this mother ing company giving you enough money for your pretty little to be situated in Gangnam." No. Baekhyun's head immediately snapped up. "What? WHAT?" 

"Your is screwed. That's what." Jongdae rolled his eyes.
Trust his friend to get himself into such a situation. Only god knows what Baekhyun told their big boss. Even he himself couldn't remember.
"I just hope you didn't say things like, I steal the office stationery and don't like to be punctual." That earned Jongdae a punch.

Baekhyun doesn't know how long it has been since Jongdae left the toilet, he only heard something about 'photoshoots' and 'models'. He had been staring straight his reflection in the mirror, praying and hoping it was all a dream and this random stranger wasn't THE Mr. Park Chanyeol. "Byun Baekhyun, you're screwed." 

It was easy enough to avoid Mr. Park. He wasn't that far up the food chain, while his accidental confidante sat right at the top, literally. There were 6 floors in between them. Apart from avoiding the newly appointed regional MD, everything was well in Baekhyun's life. By well, meaning it was hell.

Juggling models' profiles and newly edited photographs, Baekhyun turned into their pantry to grab a cup of coffee. Sometimes Baekhyun thinks caffeine was the God that controls their life - he couldn't think of one soul that would survive without one. With just a single hand free, he struggled to press the correct controls on that coffee machine that should have been put into a museum along with the remains of World War 2. The machine chugged for a while, and then stopped. Just when Baekhyun reached out to press it again, it came back to life, and before Baekhyun could put his hand down, it stopped. Yes, his life in the office was very normal.

Carefully balancing his hard earned coffee in its styrofoam cup with his hands full of documents on the other one, he made his way to his desk, praying he won't bump into anything or anyone along the way. But Baekhyun wasn't meant to live such a peaceful life after all.

"Baekhyun! Come into my office with those files now!"

"Give me a minute Joonie!"

"You don't have a minute. NOW!"

As hard as it was, Joonmyun was still his superior. And he feels the need to at least respect the poor guy.

"Joonie, you could have just let me-"
"It's Mr. Kim, Baekhyun and show Mr. Park here our new spread."

Baekhyun wasn't expecting their MD to be elegantly perched on top of Joonmyun's oak desk, with crossed arms, as if he didn't just come into the office for the first time 2 weeks ago, along with Mr. Wu drinking (is that whisky?!) while staring out of Joonmyun's large open windows.

Mr. Park smiled warmly at him. "So, Baekhyun here will be in charge of it then?" 

"In charge of what?"
"You didn't tell him yet, Joonmyun?"
"Joonmyun? Oh, is that your first name Mr. Kim?"

Baekhyun's manager flushed and shuffled through the files that were sitting on his coffee table and took out a particulary large one. 

The Biennial Autumn-Winter Fashion Show

Baekhyun had joined the company for less than a year, he didn't know this existed. Were the photographs he held in his hand for this purpose? 

"So, we want to see how your spread has been going, seen any interesting designs for this show? Have you thought of a theme?" Joonmyun was milking him too much for feeding him so so little. But he needs to keep his calm infront of his big bosses, he needs that promotion, remember?

"...hmm.. well, I have a theme in mind, like... leaves?" 

"Leaves?" Mr. Wu turned around. Baekhyun tensed. 

"I mean, it's just a rough idea, you know, can be changed anytime. I'm still going to discuss this with the rest of my team and-" 

Mr. Park got off the edge of Joonmyun's desk and walked over to Baekhyun, "Can I see those photographs?"

Baekhyun immediately handed him everything that he was struggling to hold in his left hand. Maybe it was possible to work with this guy after all. At work, everything was about professionalism, about efficiency, about results. Mr. Park looked like one that takes his work seriously. He wouldn't let something like a little encounter on the plane get in the way of Baekhyun's work - and he surely doesn't seem the type to hold it against Baekhyun for letting out a stream of nonsense on the plane.

Maybe, just maybe, if Baekhyun was lucky, his boss had already put all of it behind it as a bad flight experience. It was close to 3 weeks ago - it's almost been a whole month since he saw Mr. Park! Baekhyun smiled lightly at that thought. 

"Oh, is that coffee? From the office?" Baekhyun's trail of thought stopped short.
"..Yes. Yes, sir."
"Is it good?"
Baekhyun glanced at Mr. Wu, just staring at him, and maybe a little confused to why Mr. Park was asking such a trivial question. 
"..of course, sir."
"Oh, good. I just don't want it tasting like dirt, that usually comes out from old and dusty coffee machines. It reflects badly on us as a company." 

Baekhyun's fingers around his coffee cup froze. 

Mr. Wu cocked an eyebrow while Joonmyun just looks positively confused. 
Baekhyun looked up at Mr. Park, who was a good head taller than him, now that he was standing directly in front of him. Mr. Park shot him a warm smile, which looked like more like a smirk to Baekhyun. 
He stared directly into those brown eyes, which would be more charming if he didn't feel like his job was being threatened.

He knows. 

More importantly,
the coffee was part of his confessions. Damn it.