It was early spring.

The air wasn’t too cold to be uncomfortable and the skies were brighter than the wintery grey. There was a thin layer of cool flirty wind tying the sky and the ground lovingly.

However, to Myungsoo, none of it mattered. He had given up all romantic notions; he only knew how to work. True, sometimes he sought inspiration from nature and his magazine banked on the change of seasons, but otherwise, personally, he had no business with the seasons and the colors.

When Myungsoo looked at his 12-storey office building, perfection stared back at him. Just as the outside was polished, the inside was impeccable. Everything went around like clockwork within the building without him having to say a word.

As he walked up the foyer, he felt satisfaction – he could spare himself a pat on the back for his leadership. There were no scopes for mistakes, no room for emotional judgment. Just like how there was so room for emotions and feelings in Myungsoo’s life, no time for rest or relaxation – work was everything. He had adopted this mantra, both for his personal life and his work life although there wasn’t much distinction between the two for him. Work was life.

“Good morning, Mr. Kim,” one of his staffs bowed as she saw him approaching. He nodded and she went back to whatever she was doing immediately. That was the norm here – there was no excuse to be not doing your work.

Myungsoo took the elevator to the 12th floor, where his office was. All the 12 floors held the entirety of the Star Magazine, from photo-shoot studios to storage rooms. The 12th floor was dedicated to the offices of the higher-ups. It had to be the quietest floor in the entire building, especially because Myungsoo didn’t like unnecessary noises.

As the elevator came to a halt, he checked his $2000 silver watch that had given him impeccable time for the last 3 years – it was exactly 9.00 am. For the past 3 years he had held the office, he had never arrived a second later. Everyone knew how punctual the boss was so no one else dared to be late.

He got off the elevator and started walking towards his office. He passed a few of the staffs on this floor, all of whom greeted him reverently. He only nodded in return. He was a man of few words and he didn’t like to use them on greetings. He glanced at his employees, all working hard.

Suddenly, something caught his eyes.

It was for a second, but he thought he saw someone familiar standing beside Taemin, one of the secretaries. The face was hauntingly familiar and for a moment, he felt dread clouding his mind. The next second, he waved it away – it had to be a hallucination. There was no way he could have seen him here.

Concentrate, concentrate, he told himself repeatedly.

He obviously had a slip and had imagined him standing beside Taemin. He hadn’t had a slip like this in a long time. Maybe he sometimes did, in his sleep or when he was unguarded, but he shouldn’t be having them at 9 am in the morning. Pulling himself together, he quickened his pace towards his office.

“Good morning,” greeted Woohyun, Myungsoo’s personal assistant. He was waiting at the door to his office, and Myungsoo handed him his briefcase without a word.

“Mr. Kim talked to Mr. Choi, and he approved the design that you proposed, Sir,” Woohyun said, as they entered into the spacious office, Myungsoo heading for the comfy revolving chair at the table while Woohyun opened the briefcase and started to arrange the papers on the table.

“What design?” Myungsoo asked, frowning.

Woohyun looked surprised as he stopped arranging the papers.

“Sir, the one you were talking about during the meeting yesterday.”

“Oh right,” Myungsoo said, shaking his head. How could he forget? He wasn’t the type to forget at all.

It’s him…I’m still thinking about him.

He shook his head harder, trying to get rid of the mental images of him – the boy who reminded him of spring. It had been quite some time since he had last thought about the younger.

He had tried to get rid of every memory he had of the younger and every time he thought he had achieved it, he felt his presence, lurking in the corner of his mind. The thought of him angered him so much; he had let down all his pride and dignity for him but he had stepped on him like he was worthless. Myungsoo felt grains of fire flash under his skin.

It wasn’t healthy at all to think about him, and he couldn’t afford to get distracted from his work, so, with effort,  he put all those thoughts away.

---

That was close, Sungjong thought, breathing again.

He wasn’t sure if he had ducked just in time or whether Myungsoo had seen him. He hadn’t even noticed the man coming in; he was too busy trying to ask Taemin where he could find the Human Resources officer whom he was supposed to meet. But then his heart had literally stopped for a moment when he saw Myungsoo approaching. He chose to follow his first instinct – he ducked and hid under the table next to the photocopy machine.

Yesterday Sungjong had been elated when he got a call about the confirmation of his employment at Star Magazine. He had been out of University for 4 months and this was going to be his first job. When he had applied to work at Star Magazine, he had never dreamt that he would meet Myungsoo, who held the highest position in the company, on the very first day. He’d heard stories that people work for years before they get enough promotion to meet the Chief Editor; not anyone could just walk in through his door. So he’d though he would be safe for at least a year; nothing prepared him for this first meeting, even though it wasn’t much of a meeting. He hadn’t actually seen the man in reality in the past 8 years. Now seeing him like this brought all sorts of emotions to him, especially because of the way they had parted.

He realized that he had the wrong floor. If Myungsoo worked on this floor, it definitely wasn’t where he was supposed to be. He needed to find the right place; he didn’t want to be late on the first day at work.

He turned to Taemin again, who was looking at him weirdly.

“Why did you suddenly hide?” he asked.

“Er…um, I dropped something,” Sungjong lied. How could he explain what had prompted him to hide?

Taemin of course didn’t buy it, especially because he had seen the look on Sungjong’s face. He was probably going to ask him more questions when Sungjong heard his name being called. He turned around, to find himself face to face with the HR officer, Lee Howon, whom he was supposed to meet.

“What are you doing here? I thought I told you to meet me at my office half an hour ago.” Howon looked severely displeased. His eyebrows were knitted close together and Sungjong felt his heart sink.

So much for a good first impression.

“I’m sorry Sir, I got lost…”

“You had been to my office for your interview, how could you get lost?” Howon didn’t wait for a response; ushering him with his fingers, he turned back and started walking. Sungjong followed him timidly after bowing to Taemin, who was still eyeing him weirdly.

Howon led him through some corridors that he desperately tried to remember until they were in front of a set of large double doors. There were two large desks – one of them L-shaped - against the walls on either side. At one of the desks, a man was hunched over something. Howon walked up to him and knocked on the wood.

The man looked up, his expression brightening as he registered Howon. Sungjong wasn’t sure if it was because the man worked for a fashion magazine, he was dressed fashionably; even his hair was done to perfection and if Sungjong wasn’t mistaken, he was wearing make-up.

“Woohyun, I got you an assistant,” Howon said, pushing Sungjong forward. He bowed to Woohyun, who looked him up and down. When he was done, he turned to Howon.

“Thanks, it’s been so hard since boss kicked Kiseop out. I’ll take care of him.”

Howon and Woohyun chatted for a bit, completely ignoring Sungjong standing beside them and finally, when Howon left, Woohyun looked at him with a serious face.

“Look punk -”

“Sungjong,” he corrected.

Woohyun closed his eyes and breathed out slowly.

“Firstly, don’t interrupt me, Sungjong. Secondly, this job you’ve got, it’s important, it’s demanding, and no one’s going to take your crap here. So concentrate. You’re going to be the assistant PA to the chief editor-”

Sungjong lost him at chief editor – did he mean Myungsoo? It had to be Myungsoo. But wait, why did it have to be Myungsoo? Not had he just landed himself a job that required him to be on the same floor as the man he dreaded meeting, but he also happened to be a personal assistant to him. Could his luck get any worse? He felt walls closing in on him from all sides.

He only got back his senses when he sensed Woohyun snapping his fingers close to his face.

“Excuse me, Mr. Daydream, but if you have the concentration span of a spoon, you’ll get fired tomorrow,” Woohyun said scornfully.

Sungjong didn’t have the heart to say anything else. He realized he was the newbie here and he had to get used to this, at least for some time. This was truly nothing compared to the potential doom that was looming on the horizon…

“Yes, umm…”

“That would be hyung for you. You’re what, a fetus or something?”

Sungjong didn’t reply. Woohyun was really testing his patience, but there was nothing he could do.

“As for your duties,” Woohyun began, taking him through all the mundane chores he would have to do throughout the day. At least none of it involved meeting Myungsoo and he was actually hopeful about surviving through this job without having to interact with him.

“You don’t go into that room, okay?” He pointed his thumb at the double doors, behind which he supposed was the chief editor’s office. “Never. Remember, you’re just the assistant PA, I am actually his PA.” Woohyun said PA like it was nearer to the ranks of the President. “Boss hates to be disturbed. However,” he paused dramatically, causing Sunjong to hold his breath. “If I am not here and that bell rings,” he pointed towards the doors again, “You have to go running in there, like your life depends on you. He doesn’t appreciate being kept waiting.”

“But you’ll always be here, right?” Sungjong asked tentatively. He wasn’t looking forward to running into the room to face Myungsoo.

Woohyun looked at him like he was stupid. He regarded the question as too stupid to answer. Making a face at Sungjong he pointed to the L-shaped desk on the other side.

“That’s your desk. You have to pick up the calls, but you don’t patch them through to the boss. Just take their messages and tell them that you’ll have the boss call them back. Understand?”

Nodding emphatically, Sungjong hurried towards his desk. He wanted to familiarize himself with his work space before Woohyun could insult him anymore. He had already promised himself that he would work hard for his first job; he had no intentions of getting himself fired.

But something bothered him – the way Woohyun talked about Myungsoo it seemed like he was a scary person. He knew for a fact that Myungsoo was a very warm and friendly person. So was the scary exterior a persona he had made up for himself so that he could control his employees by instilling fear in them? It seemed like a likely explanation but he had trouble imagining a cold, controlling Myungsoo – he just couldn’t.

The Myungsoo he had known could only be described as spring.