Chapter 9

                The clock ticks and I don’t even know heads from tails.  Things aren’t really going as well as I’d hoped.  It doesn’t help that everything is so fresh.  I am confused about what to do, and he won’t leave me alone.  It’s like I see both of them wherever I go just waiting for me to say something.  But it’s a new day, tension is high as always but I think I can do what I need to do.  I have to…

                The sun rose high above the clouds as memories shuffled past Ninomiya’s brain.  The walk to the front of the apartment complex, and the taxi ride back to his place still felt like a surreal dream.  The only thing that validated what had happened the night before was the throbbing headache and the somewhat too chipper text that dinged a little too happily in the early morning.

                Steam emanated from the door of Ninomiya’s bathroom as he got himself ready for his day.  He probably would benefit from doing his rituals at night, but he found that waking up wasn’t the same when it was just a slumped morning with a splash to the face and a coffee out the door.  No, he liked being able to get himself ready.  It was like building a fresh new persona every morning.  From the timing of his Keurig making him a cup of coffee, to the clean feel of leaving the house knowing that everything is in tip top shape.                 

A deep breath was released as Ninomiya stood in front of his mirror tapping a few products over his face with delicate precision.  His place at KRTV had given him an opportunity to push his elegance and grace throughout the building.  Taking a sponge and dabbing it into a pad of powder the assistant’s feeling of waking up in the morning showed its face.

                “Why… does everyone at this damn building have to be so damn PRETTY!?”  Ninomiya murmurs fighting with the sponge that had just streaked some product into a region of his face he wished it hadn’t.

                It was starting to become tedious and repetitive for the male to do this every morning.  Working for a fashion magazine, image was always a thing Ninomiya understood.  But it was never as extreme as it was at KRTV.  In his mind he felt like he had to jump through hoops just to keep up with the long time workers within the building. 

                To Ninomiya it felt like he was inadequate without the layers of preparation that it took him every morning, and frankly it was starting to get tiresome.  It didn’t help that as he was grooming himself that morning, the all too chipper ding flew through the apartment once again reminding him that he had a text message.

                Sighing, Ninomiya tries to fix the mistake he’s made in a swift manner as he walks out of his bathroom in nothing but his pajamas.  He made his way to his little kitchenette to grab his morning coffee and see what was needed of him so early in the morning.

                Thinking that work had no boundaries, the brown haired boy was expecting the worst and a cram in his early morning schedule.  But as he grabbed his morning coffee and started fixing it to his liking, he was surprised to see a simple word from an unknown number.

                ‘Hello’

                Ninomiya looks at the phone wondering if he was going crazy.  Did he forget to put a new contact in?  It didn’t seem normal to receive such a text.  It felt a little eerie, sort of like a scene in a horror movie. 

                Overthinking the situation, and growing overly paranoid, Ninomiya quickly shakes his head trying to put his mind around what it could mean.  Knowing that there really wasn’t anyway around it, the assistant replied the only way he knew how.

                ‘Hello?’

                The text shot through the air reaching whatever destination it decided to reach.  Whoever this was Ninomiya wondered how they got his number.  He couldn’t really think about it too long though, because not before he could put it down that that all too cheery ‘ding’ made its reappearance.  The stranger had made their reply.

‘How are you?’

Taking a deep breath and reaching for his coffee, Ninomiya tilted his head in confusion.  He sat there for a few seconds wondering if more was to come.  But nothing came, it was just him in his kitchenette, staring at his phone.  Blowing his hair away from his forehead, Ninomiya reached over and started tapping on his phone.

‘I am fine.  How are you?’

Promptly grabbing his coffee and looking around the small kitchenette for something to eat that morning, knowing that he will probably succumb to a pastry from the café across the street of KRTV, Ninomiya takes a seat at his kitchen table scratching his head rummaging through social media.

The moment he seated himself at the table however he was surprised by the loud ‘ding’ that told him he had a reply. 

‘Whoever this is replies quite promptly to text messages…’  Ninomiya thought as he read the received message.

‘I am doing fine.  You forgot something at my apartment.  Maybe we can meet for lunch?’

A little flabbergasted with the development, Ninomiya stared at his phone as he realized who was texting him.  He didn’t know what to say.   What else could you say from the man that saved you from bleeding to death the night before?

So he answered the only way he knew how, bluntly.

“Thank you for the affirming that everything that happened last night was real.  Can’t you give it to me at work?”

Rolling his eyes, Ninomiya looked up at the clock he kept on the wall across his kitchenette he realized that he was letting time get the best of him.  The second hand was moving dramatically slow, but it felt like time no matter how hard he willed it kept on moving.

Not really wanting to leave his apartment but knowing fully well that if he didn’t he wouldn’t have the luxury of living in the space he had now, Ninomiya begrudgingly stomped over to his closet to pick out and outfit.

The morning was eerily silent as he walked into KRTV.  As predicted, the pastry stuck out of his mouth as he tried his best to munch with another coffee in one hand.  The other hand was busy rummaging through his bag as he wandered through security not looking at anyone focused on the unorganized mess he called his messenger bag.

As if Ninomiya’s life already felt like nothing was going right, he only had himself to blame as he looked for the hard copy of schedules in his bag wondering if he had enough time to print off another copy for Minho that morning before he had to run to the set of ‘Dynasty of a Million Years’. 

Shaking his head mumbling to himself Ninomiya was surprised by the silver door of the elevator hitting the top of his head.  Surprised by the obstruction he looked up disgruntled, than quickly looked around to see if anyone noticed he had just walked into a closed elevator.  It appeared no one seemed to take notice, but he dreaded looking over his shoulder to look at the reception desk as Ninomiya could feel the eagle eyes of Kibum sitting amusedly at the front desk.

Closing his eyes taking a deep breathe, feeling the blush of embarrassment go through his face as he heard the familiar signal of the elevator reach his floor.  Ninomiya walked into the silver cube chin up trying his best to remember that the day could get worse.  Today was just not starting off as well as he thinks they usually do.

As he pressed the button to his floor to find that he couldn’t be more wrong.  The moment the doors opened Ninomiya realized he was stepping into the jungle he had been promised.  It felt like everyone was moving at a speed where time was of the essence.  Walking by the glass corridors and looking into the cubes of space the worried expression and the frantic looks were enough to worry the brown haired boy to quicken his steps towards Minho’s office.

One would think after being in this position for so long that it would get easier. But with the bump on his head and the missing documents added to what seemed to be a department of people running around like a natural disaster was about to hit the building… 

One couldn’t really blame the assistant now could they?

Quickly making his way to his grand desk in front of the large overdramatic doors leading to Minho’s abode, Ninomiya plops his stuff onto his chair quickly clicking on his computer screen to push documents to print to Minho’s office printer and barges through the doors to see Taemin and Jiyoung grabbing their bags as Minho gazed over paperwork analyzing the pieces as if the answer to life were embedded in the scripture.

“What’s happening?  You guys aren’t scheduled for any meetings today.  And I need Taemin for a photoshoot in three hours.”  Ninomiya inquired as he walked up to Minho’s desk looking at the duo leaving the room bemusedly.

“Change of plans…”  Minho spoke from his desk not acknowledging Ninomiya’s entrance.

“…I need Jiyoung and Taemin to push through with searching for talent in Busan and Daegu.  They’ll be gone for a week.”

Dumbfounded, Ninomiya froze in shock as he was about to walk to the printer with updates on his projects.  Things weren’t adding up.  Ninomiya had been in charge of paperwork and documentation since they took on the idol project and with the budget they were given and manpower they had on hand, pushing a trip to Daegu and Busan could mean a cancellation and freeing up of a TV timeslot.

“W-wait… You’re sending these two to Daegu and Busan?!  I barely have enough to budget any changes in my schedule.  Taemin’s shoot is crucial to promotions to be set next week and ‘Dynasty of a Million Years’ doesn’t even have an ending!  I’ve already had to apologize to three agencies for talent that had been denied access to the studios because Kibum wasn’t here last week and we are already over budget because of a re filming!” 

Ninomiya looked sharply at the two about to leave the room as they stood watching to see what the result of the statements would be.  By the looks of it, Jiyoung and Taemin didn’t seem to know the implications of how behind they were on the other projects.

Minho looked up from his paperwork and looked like he couldn’t be bothered.  “I’ve made an executive call and I need you guys to leave NOW.  We don’t have time to be squabbling over logistics when I need results.” 

With that it was done.  Jiyoung and Taemin looked over at each other and nodded towards Minho while taking their leave.  It was clear that time wasn’t what they had on the table, but Ninomiya still stood there in shock wondering what he was going to do to tie the loose ends for his part of the workload.

“They are just going to LEAVE?!  Minho I can’t do my job without a photographer when I need to send in promo photos to GD by the end of the week.  I am already behind schedule, not even to mention I have to tie up plot holes with an idea created by Jiyoung.  If we push this off anymore we are going to have pull money out of nowhere just to reschedule.” 

Ninomiya stood there flabbergasted, not necessarily angry, but lost.  Options, work arounds, everything was going through his head at a hundred miles a minute wondering how he was going to make it work.  The assistant has already accepted the decision that was pushed in front of him, now it was just trying to fix it all.

Meanwhile, Minho stared at the male he hired wondering why he was still there.  The things he said were true, but he didn’t look angry.  If anything, Ninomiya looked more anxious.  It deterred him from his normal expression of anger and moved onto confusion.  Such confusion that his next statement left his mouth in the form of a question.

“I just need you to fix it?”

Flashing back to the moment that was at hand, Ninomiya flashed back to the present moment and blew his bangs out of his face.

“I was hoping for a bit more than that Minho!  You’re giving me a task that is practically impossible.  And I know I haven’t been here as long as the rest of your team, but I think I’ve done pretty well while I’ve been here.  I don’t think I, or anyone else that works on these projects, deserve to hear that the things we do are just going to get harder!”

Minho watched as his assistant looked like he was on the verge of an aneurism as he took a deep breath and stood from his desk to see what he could do.  It was at that moment he noticed that there was a plaster sitting across the right side of his head.  To add to that he could see that there were a few bruises on the parts of Ninomiya’s arms that showed from his shirt. 

“Are you… what happened to you?”  Minho asked making his way from his desk pushing away from his papers for a split second to see what was wrong.

“Nothing I am just trying to figure out how to work all this out… I might have to steal a photographer somewhere… I’ll call Minki to see if I can steal a freelancer from Style for a bit.  As for the storyline…”  Ninomiya started to blabber as he started to walk out of the office trying to put everything into place. 

Minho didn’t let him get too far though.  He grabbed his arm pushing his assistant to a stop putting the bruises in clear view between the both of them.  The look of worry was in his eyes as Minho silently pushed the message that he wasn’t worried about the projects right now. 

The brown haired assistant looked down to realize that he forgot that yesterday’s events had occurred.  It was the farthest thing from his mind.  Ninomiya sighed as he pulled his arm away and shook his head swiftly replying in a non chalant manner.

“That doesn’t matter.  You basically told me that I have to move everything around and change half of the work you’ve given me.  It’s the least of your problems.”

Minho stood there in disbelief as he watched the other male begin to walk out of the door.  Taking a strides forward, he once again grabbed his assistant’s arm bringing him to a halt once more. 

“You don’t tell me that you coming in with your head half bandaged, and arms with bruises along with other injuries in god knows where means absolutely nothing!”  Minho scolded as he did a quick look over to ensure he hadn’t missed anything else that was visible.

Ninomiya sighed as he pulled his arm away once more.  “You cannot tell me after your tirade earlier sending Jiyoung and Taemin away that I come in mildly injured you stop everything.  We both have a full plate in front of us and you said yourself we have no time for logistics, you need results.”

“But that doesn’t mean that I push you when you are hurt Ninomiya!”  Minho burst out fiery eyes ensuring they made contact with the other male.  “Do you think we are so heartless to let you run around when it’s obvious something horrible has happened to you?!”

Blinking, surprised by the other man’s concern, NInomiya took a deep breathe in.  “You’re really worried about me aren’t you?” A bitter laugh left Ninomiya’s lips as the stress of the day followed him out of the office.  “I am fine.  I mean, I am bandaged up, the bruises will disappear eventually, and I have to focus on what you’ve hired me to do.” 

Minho glares into the ceiling as he tried to put his thoughts together.  The moment that he had his thoughts together, Ninomiya had disappeared.  All Minho could see were quick footsteps of a man he had hired hurriedly walking down the entry way. 

Before he knew it his feet took strides forward and down the hall following the blue messenger bag down the hall keeping an eye on the swift footsteps until they disappeared around the corner. 

At that moment Minho questioned if the things he was doing was right.  But the answer was staring him in his face.  There wasn’t any other options.  All he could do was watch the last glimpse of Ninomiya run around the corner… and hope for the best.