“Good morning sunshine!” greeted Yunho with a happy smile, galloping towards Jaejoong on the second day of his official employment. If he had his way, he would have picked the tiny man up in a bear hug and spun him around in circles. But fear for his manhood stopped him.

“What’s so good about it?” grumbled Jaejoong, who had been deprived of his morning coffee thanks to the stupid traffic that had him running late.

Finally looking up at the unbearably cheerful face of his trainee, Jaejoong was taken aback by the sight. But, Jaejoong was not a morning person and could be especially grouchy without his regular dose of caffeine, so no amount of blinding bright smiles and cute, excited puppy eyes could change that!

“Your late!” he barked, standing up from his chair to stare down the offender.

“No, I’m not” the taller, and still annoyingly-smiley Yunho defended.

“You were supposed to be here by 8 o’clock!”

“Hey! I was here by 7:45. Changmin asked me to see him…” he trailed off, making his point.

“Oh, ok. That’s fine then! It doesn’t matter at all that I – your boss – specifically told you to get your backside here by 8 bloody am!” he seethed.

“Jeez, calm dow…”

“Don’t you dare tell me to calm down! If you had business with the manager, you should have had the initiative to come extra early and finish on time! What the heck is with you and Changmin’s little meetings anyway?” he demanded. It had been bugging him.

“Wow. You are not a morning person” Yunho observed, quite unhelpfully. When Jaejoong just glared at him, he decided it was best to play safe. He could later.

“What’s the big deal anyway? I mean I’m late by what? Three minutes!” his eyes bugged out as he looked at his phone. What the hell? He was being scolding for coming in late by only a measly 3 minutes? And through no fault of his own, may he add. He actually had woken up extra early, like Jaejoong suggested, but not for the reason he suggested it. He’d been excited about being the first to greet his little ball of fire. Well, he’d greeted him alright.

“Hey! Don’t make it sound like it’s bloody ok to come in even one minute late, you brainless idiot! Didn’t I explain the importance of punctuality to you!?” Jaejoong was well and truly shouting by now. Not knowing how else to take his anger out, he snatched Yunho’s phone right out of his hands.

“Hey! Give that back!” Yunho complained, as he tried to reach for the device, only to be stopped by Jaejoong’s hand on his tummy…pinching him…hard.

“OUCH! What the hell?” he yelled, rubbing the abused spot.

“Your phone is confiscated.” Jaejoong stated, with no hint of remorse as he placed it in his back pocket.

“What? Wait! You can’t do that!” Yunho desperately tried to reason. Not that he needed to, he could just reach and grab it but that would probably lead to more trouble. Geez. Here he was thinking they’d made progress yesterday.

“Can’t I? Watch me!” Jaejoong glared at him harder, daring the man to question his authority or decision. Yunho decided it was best to keep his mouth shut, lest he be crucified.

“What’s going on in here?” Siwon demanded upon entering the little computer room; he’d heard the sound of an argument but wasn’t able to pick up the gist of things until he’d come close enough to hear the two going at it. Standing in the doorway now, he just lifted his eyebrow up in question, a little amused at the kicked-puppy look Yunho was giving his friend…who was adamantly ignoring him.

“He confiscated my phone!” Yunho pointed a finger at the offender, childishly hoping Siwon would step in. From what he’d learnt, he was confident Siwon could convince Jae of a lot of things.

Siwon, on the other hand, realised the problem after a quick scan of Jaejoong’s ruffled features and fierce glint in his eyes.

“Jae, did you not have your coffee this morning?” he asked calmly, knowing the answer regardless. Jae just continued to glare at anything and everything. Yup, he definitely was not a morning person.

“Who cares if he had coffee or not? Tell him to give me…”

“Shut up Yunho” Siwon interrupted, still just as calm. Yunho was offended; crossing his arms across his chest with a loud “Humph!”

“Siwon!” they heard someone yell from outside.

“Over here” Siwon responded over his shoulder; glad for the timing.

“Morning guys! Oh, you’re Yunho aren’t you?” The girl enthusiastically asked, continuing with just a nod from Yunho. “OMG! You’re even more handsome than everyone said.” She chirped, missing the widening of Siwon’s eyes. “I’m Sunny, by the way” she introduced herself.

“Hi” Yunho responded, a little happier to see someone with a smile on their face, instead of the grouchy frown.

“The coffee, Sunny?” Siwon enquired, not so calmly.

“Oh here. So, Yunho how has everything been so far?” she asked Yunho right after giving the steaming beverage to Siwon. It annoyed him that the two just started a random conversation, and clearly seemed to get along instantly. He couldn’t help the little grunt of annoyance from escaping.

He turned around to sacrifice his coffee for the sake of his friend’s sanity, only to be faced with a knowing smile as the shorter man accepted the drink with a thankful nod. Siwon squinted his eyes at the coffee addict in warning, getting an adorable giggle in response. Amazing, he thought. Just a whiff of the chemicals and he was already on his way to being a friendlier person to be around.

“Better?” He asked sarcastically, watching Jaejoong lustfully gulp down the hot contents. How does he not burn his tongue? Oh yeah, because he’s a little devil that’s why! Siwon would never forget his unfortunate session of tasting Jaejoong’s food. Although it was delicious enough to be made by a professional cook – damn the amount of chilli the guy had put into it! Poor Siwon had been in tears for an hour; his entire face on fire.

Jaejoong’s cooking was a good description of his personality; delicious food for his amazing heart and personality and those bloody chillies for his crazy wacko side.

“Much better. Thank you” he gratefully smiled, finishing the strong coffee in record time; his lips at the end. That was a little action that had Yunho’s attention pivoting back towards him; his focus fixing on the little pink tip on those sumptuous lips. He was scared he might have a heart attack from the crazy speed his heart decided to go at.

“Yunho?” Sunny clicked her fingers in front of his eyes, snapping him out of what could have been an embarrassing situation. Before they could continue their conversation about nothing, Siwon called Sunny along and they both exited after a quick warm hug from Sunny to Yunho. Siwon was not impressed, but Jaejoong was amused.

Seeing the smile on his face, Yunho was convinced he’d fallen for a bipolar kitten.

Wow, wow, wow! What? FALLEN!?

What the hell Jung? Yunho questioned himself, panicked. He’d barely gotten to know the guy and his brain was already running ahead of itself. Tut tut, silly brain, he scolded internally. His heart skipped a beat at the thought, though…

“Ah, so can I have my phone back?” he asked to distract himself.

Jaejoong looked at him like one would a bug on the windshield. “No.” he replied.

“Why not? Come on, Ja…”

“Boss! You are to call me boss” Jaejoong corrected.

“What…I am not calling you Boss” he shook his head resolutely.

“Fine then. Try Hyung.” Jaejoong smiled evilly at him as Yunho’s mouth dropped open.

“You must be dreaming” he recovered, quickly.

“I’ve briefly looked at your file Jung Yunho, and turns out – in my favour I must add – that you’re younger than me. So, come on then. Call me Hyung since you don’t like Boss” Jaejoong said with a smirk, knowing full well he’d won. But what Yunho was relieved to see was that Jaejoong obviously hadn’t made the connection between Jung Yunho, the heir to the company and Jung Yunho his trainee. Though, he wasn’t sure they knew of his first name; the employees mostly just referred to them by Chairman, or Jung-sshi; no first names.

“Why were you snooping on my file?” he retorted, catching the red-head off guard.

“Because you were late, and I needed a distraction” he simply replied, not giving the matter much significance.

“You know what? Keep the phone. No way in the deepest depths of hell am I calling you Boss, and there is nothing in this world that can make me call you Hyung” he emphasised with air quotes. Determined not to lose this time. “Why did you want to see me this early in the morning?” he demanded.

“Excuse me? You call this early? Just so you’re not under any false assumptions, the regular time I expect you to be here from now on is 7 o’clock, sharp. Got that?”

“Why that early?”

“Because I was only being lenient by calling you in for eight, the official work hours start from seven. So it up!”

And so the glaring ensued.

***

Turns out, Jaejoong was harassing him for no reason. After a long period of glaring, Jaejoong had finally been the first to roll his eyes in disgust and walk off expecting the lug to follow him – which he did.

As they’d entered Jaejoong’s little office, he walked behind his desk and fished out a phone, dropping Yunho’s one in its place rather roughly, with a smirk towards its owner. Apparently, all staff have to have special mobiles specifically for employment use. They are not allowed to use their personal devices during work hours unless there’s some sort of emergency. Ok, thought Yunho. I can deal with that.  

His self-proclaimed Boss had also informed him that today, too, would be spent in introductions. Jaejoong didn’t feel it was worth it to start proper work considering it was Friday, he wanted to start the heavy stuff at a time that wouldn’t leave a gap for Yunho to forget.

So here they were, after another day of making rounds and becoming familiar with his surroundings and colleagues, sitting around the chatty staff room during lunch break. Jaejoong was in the middle of adding the main contact numbers to Yunho’s new phone, when Heechul strode forward and snatched the device, standing with his hands on his hips as he stared at him questioningly. Yunho, who was almost glued to Jaejoong’s side while the latter typed, stopped chewing on the strawberries he’d gotten a hold of and stared at his other colleague; a little annoyed that his phone had been snatched forcefully for the second time that day.

“Problem, Heech?” Jaejoong asked, confused.

“Don’t play dumb! What did you do?”

“Umm, I showed Yunho around, handed him his phone, came to lunch and was in the middle of filling up the sad contact list when you so rudely interrupted…” he let the sentence hang as he shrugged Yunho’s weight off his shoulder and looked up at his friend.

“Oh, ha-ha! I forget sometimes how funny you are” he countered clearly sarcastic. “I meant about the mystery girl you mentioned yesterday! You know, the one you rejected Shirota for? Well?” He looked like a psychotic paparazzi asking for the details of a juicy story.

While, Jaejoong leaned forward with an instant smile on his face, disregarding his trainee’s presence, Yunho just about stopped all bodily functions momentarily. All he’d heard was ‘Mysterious Girl’ and the rest of the sentence had flown over his head as his hands automatically clenched into fists and his content facial features turned into a sinister scowl. To say he felt utterly and unreasonably jealous was an understatement. He was furious.

For a split second it occurred to him that his reaction was completely silly and uncalled for, but as he looked at Jaejoong gushing about how excited he was about his date, he couldn’t fool himself. Whatever this feeling was, Yunho didn’t give a rats hairy backside! All he cared about at that moment was that Jaejoong apparently seemed to have a girlfriend.

No, he thought. Absolutely no chance in hell was he going to stand for it.

As he glared holes into the carpeted floor, the rational part of his brain decided to pop its head up. He didn’t know Jaejoong; no matter how much he pretended like they were already a bloody married couple, the fact remained that Jaejoong was no more than his acquaintance and colleague. Naturally he didn’t know about his ual orientation, or more importantly his relationship status! So basically, Yunho’s brain was being a total loser and overreacting. In fact, he was a little taken aback at how strongly those feelings had hit him in the gut. Damn, he thought, the last thing I need is to develop stalker tendencies.

Shaking his head to rid himself of such absurd feelings, he turned around to focus on the heated conversation next to him.

“She’s so amazing Heech! You should hear how soothing her…”

NO! Jung Yunho, you are not jealous! You have no right to be…

“Oh, her smile! It makes my heart run at lightning speed…”

JUNG ING YUNHO CALM YOUR !

“Heechul when she hugs me my heart beats so fast I feel like…”

Please. For the love of god don’t do something stupid from a damn cliché novel!

“I will make this Saturday the most romantic date she’s ever been on…”

DON’T.

“I want to show the world that we’re together…”

NO!

“Yes Heech…ah, I don’t want to lie! Off course I want to kiss her!”

THAT’S IT!

And that’s when Yunho forcefully kicked his rational persona out the window.

Not giving the envy-inducing kitten a chance to stop him, he stood up and marched out of the room, going straight to the manager’s office. Yes, he would and already was feeling guilty. But screw it! He can deal with that later…he’ll make it up to him somehow.

Hey, he still was the Big Boss, he reminded himself encouragingly, trying to squish the tiny voice of reason that was trying to overtake the green monster in him.

He was highly disappointed when he entered Changmin’s office only to face empty furniture.

Karma? That voice again!

“Ugh!” he exclaimed before realising he didn’t have a phone to call him either.

“Fine. I’ll just tell him at the end of the day.” He said out loud, nodding his head in determination.

As he backed out of the corridor, he was contemplating what excuse he should use to convince Changmin when he almost crashed into Siwon who was pulling a big decorated trolley carrying a gigantic cake. They both let out a loud “WOW” at the same time putting in gears to stop themselves in their tracks; taking deep breaths of relief when they saw the cake safe and sound.

“That could have been one delicious mess” Sunny glared at the cake, very disappointed it was still standing high and mighty.

“Why so disappointed?” wondered Yunho as he stared at the multi-layered frilly cake.

“Because I hope that y little bride doesn’t enjoy a perfect wedding reception” she sneered in response, taking Yunho by surprise who looked at Siwon in question.

“Sunny, for the last time if anything bad happens we are screwed! Get over your little grudge and cooperate with me please?” Siwon almost begged exasperated.

“Fine whatever. Bring the stupid cake so they can be done and out of my line of sight!” the long-legged beauty marched forward with a forced smile on her face.

“Why am I always the one to get the most difficult partner?” the handsome man rolled his eyes as he steered the trolley after her. Leaving Yunho to just stare for a second and shake his head, deciding it was best to just go with the flow – as was the case with a lot of things here at 5TAR.