5 years later

Eunhyuk was peacefully sleeping, until he was finally awakened by the annoying sound of his alarm clock. He lazily opened his eyes and groaned after seeing what time it was. It was already really late and he knew that he was going to be late for work again. He smacked himself across his forehead, knowing that his boss wasn’t going to be too happy about it. Eunhyuk even considered calling in sick, but after thinking about it he decided not to because he didn’t know what else to do. His work was the only thing that kept him interested during the day. But beside his work, his life was pretty boring actually.

After finally getting out of his bed, the man walked into his bathroom where he took a quick shower. He then put on his suit and stepped in front of the mirror, checking himself out. He smirked, knowing that he looked damn good in that suit. He then fixed his hair and finally left his apartment. Going down to his garage, he got into his car and just as he was about to drive off to his work, his phone started buzzing. Because he was already late, he let out an annoyed groan, but decided to take the call anyway. His mood only dropped after seeing Shindong’s name written on the screen. He knew that this couldn’t mean anything good.

“Yeah, what’s wrong?” said Eunhyuk after picking up the phone.

“Why the hell are you late again?! The boss was already pissed off when he came in today, but after seeing that you weren’t here, he got even angrier. And since you weren’t here, he decided to take his anger out on the next victim… me.”

Eunhyuk closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead. He knew how short-tempered their boss was and he already felt bad for his friend. He pressed his lips together and then sighed. He knew that he would have to make it up to Shindong for what he had to go through that morning because of him. “I’m sorry, I went really late to bed last night,” said Eunhyuk and then sighed. “And I am really sorry that Mr. Kim put you through all of this so early this morning.”

“That’s fine,” said the voice from the other side, sounding much calmer and softer this time. “Just get your quick over here, because he said that he was going to check again if you came and if you aren’t here, things won’t end up pretty.”

“,” said Eunhyuk and quickly started his car. “You know, I’m going to be there in 15 minutes. Okay then, bye.”

After ending the phone call, Eunhyuk quickly drove towards his work, reminding himself that he would have to be extra nice to Shindong during the whole day. Getting yelled at from Kim Heechul was by far the worst experience you could go through at their company. When Eunhyuk finally parked his car in front of the company that he worked in, he locked his door and went into the building. When he finally reached the floor that he worked in, he felt how weight lifted of his chest, because his boss was nowhere to be seen. He quietly made his way to his desk and sat down, breathing heavily because he was literally running all the way from the parking lot.

 After a few more moments of catching his breath, Eunhyuk was finally interrupted by an annoyed groan from his left and he quickly lifted his body up, only to see his annoyed friend glaring at him. Eunhyuk sighed and bowed his head apologetically. Shindong really did look pretty pissed.

“Look, man… I am sorry that I was late again,” said Eunhyuk, in attempt to apologise to the older male. Again.

Shindong gave him another angry look, but after a while his facial expression softened and he sighed, crossing his arms on his chest. “No, don’t worry about it too much,” he finally said and a familiar smile came upon his lips yet again. “You should be more worried about yourself.”

Happy that Shindong accepted his apology, Eunhyuk felt how a huge weight lifted off of his chest. Shindong was the only real friend that he made since his move and he really didn’t want to lose him. “Tell me about it. What did the boss say this time?”

“You know, just the usual. He threatened me that he was going to fire you if you are late one more time,” said Shindong and Eunhyuk felt how his body froze. It wasn’t like Eunhyuk loved his job to death, but the salary was really good and that was all that he wanted at that moment. He learned a long time ago that a person’s happiness isn’t the most important thing in life, plus it rarely happened.

“,” said Eunhyuk and scratched the back of his head. He then shook his head and started massaging his temples, trying to come up with a good excuse why he was late if Mr. Kim asked him something. “Did he say anything else?”

“Not really,” said Shindong and sighed. “I just don’t know why he had to take his anger out on me. I didn’t do anything wrong,” he then added and shrugged.

“Yeah well,” said Eunhyuk and leaned back in his chair. It didn’t really surprise him that their boss took his anger out on Shindong. Everyone knew how short-tempered the man was. “You’ve been working here for two years now and you still haven’t learned how he is?”

“I know,” finally said Shindong and eyed him. “He is a bit hot-headed.”

“A bit?” asked Eunhyuk and scoffed. “Come on, he is constantly in a bad mood and all that he does all day is yell at us. I mean, the company is doing great under his management, but still he could be a little bit nicer to us.”

“Well,” started Shindong, almost agreeing with his friend. However, he suddenly stopped talking and his eyes grew huge as he lifted his gaze up, only to see Kim Heechul standing behind Eunhyuk. How long was the other one standing there? He swallowed hard, because the man’s face looked really scary. “H-he’s not that bad,” finally managed to stutter out Shindong and he looked at Eunhyuk then, who gave him a weird look.

“What do you mean ‘he’s not that bad’?” asked Eunhyuk and shook his head. “He is a horrible person. No wonder that he is still single, what kind of woman would want him as a husband? He is a pain in the ,” went on by saying Eunhyuk.

“Shut up,” said Shindong quietly and looked up again. Heechul’s face darkened at Eunhyuk’s words and Shindong knew that they were really screwed now.

“Why?” asked Eunhyuk, completely confused by Shindong’s sudden change of behaviour. He didn’t quite get it why Shindong looked so worried all of the sudden. However, he quickly got what was going on as Shindong’s eyes started travelling up and he sighed. Knowing his ty luck, Heechul was probably standing right behind him. “He’s standing behind me, isn’t he?”

“Yeah,” said Shindong and then finally looked down. Eunhyuk started slapping himself mentally and then sighed. He knew that he should turn around, but he didn’t really want to look at the man. However, after hearing how Heechul cleared his throat, he knew that that was the sign for him to turn around.

He took a deep breath in and allowed himself to close his eyes before he finally turned around. When he finally turned around, he saw that the boss had his arms folded and his foot was tapping impatiently against the floor. Eunhyuk gulped when his eyes met Heechul’s and he felt how the temperature of the room suddenly lowered by a few degrees. Heechul’s cold look sent unpleasant shivers down his spine and he quickly stood up, bowing down in apology. But he knew that it was useless, because it was common sense that if you made the man angry it was really difficult to gain his trust back. So because of this, he knew that it was screwed. Not only that, but he knew that he really could say goodbye to his job now.

“I… um,” started Eunhyuk, but then stopped because he didn’t really know what to say to him. He knew that the man had every right to be angry at him now and all that he could really do was to apologise to him and hope that his apology was going to be accepted. “I am very sorry, sir. I didn’t really mean it, it was more like a joke and I--”

“Oh, save me with your pathetic excuses, Eunhyuk,” said Heechul sharply and rolled his eyes. “I think that we need to talk… in my office,” he added and Eunhyuk’s heart dropped. He knew what was going to happen.

“Right,” he said and nervously rubbed his pals together. Before going to Heechul’s office he looked at Shindong one last time, who gave him a compassionate look. He sighed and then slowly followed Heechul into his office.

Heechul opened the door of his office as they reached it and stepped inside. Eunhyuk felt how his heart fastened and he quickly followed his boss, because he didn’t want to make him even more upset. He watched how the older one sat down onto his chair, while Eunhyuk was just awkwardly standing next to the door, mentally preparing himself to what was going to happen. Getting fired suddenly didn’t seem so bad anymore. He was more scared of what Heechul was going to say to him.

“Don’t just stand there like a moron and sit down,” said Heechul annoyed and pointed to the chair in front of his desk.