“Lee Hongbin is a dead man.” Hakyeon said, tapping his foot on the ground as the group stood in the visitor’s lounge  gaping at this new badass biker Minah who looked around at them awkwardly. Haneul was still gaping at her as Sanghyuk smirked at the two which made everyone suspicious since no one had any idea what was going on in that man’s brain. Jaehwan looked highly amused as he inspected Minah’s leather jacket and nodded approvingly.

“I don’t see what the problem is here.” he said, as Wonshik nodded.

“Duckling looks like a badass. A super cool one at that!”

“Everyone will want to marry her now!” Haneul wailed as she hurried to hide Minah “nope, none of you can look at her, I’m marrying her, You guys can all go find someone else.”

“Uh…” Minah blinked as Hakyeon mumbled something about his child and Taekwoon looked at her with his piercing eyes “should I go back and change or something?”

“No,” Taekwoon’s voice said with a finality that made all of Minah’s plans to return home and change halt “we need you to stay like this, the clients are still here and might require you to go meet them, after all, this does fit the brief given by them.”

“Did Taekwoon just indirectly call the Duckling hot?” Haneul mumbled to Hyuk whose smirk widened. Hakyeon broke through the ring of people around Minah and caught her wrist.

“Alright! Let’s get to work now!” he said, leading her away as he turned to look at everyone “And no, you cannot steal her from my department today. She is under my special protection. Yes, that applies to you Haneul.” he growled as Minah shot them all a weak smile and followed Hakyeon into the office.

Hongbin emerged from the conference room almost at the same time and the clients from Marley Bobinson gaped at Minah now striding past the and into the office. Hongbin lead them out and thanked them before turning around to the group which was still standing in the visitor’s lounge and shooting them a thumbs up and a huge grin.

“We got the deal, they loved the concept. They were wondering if they could use Minah as a…”

“No, we do not lend out our employees as models,” Taekwoon said, holding his hand up to halt all conversations about it “we will find people whose job it is to model for such things and make them do it. Kim Minah need not be dragged into a task which involves a company who demands for ‘hot women’ to be included in their ads. Now if everyone could get back to their work, that would be great.”

Haneul was grinning at Jaehwan and Wonshik who shot Taekwoon a knowing look. Sanghyuk shrugged before waving and going back into the office. Minah had a report typed up for him which he needed to collect anyway, so he would have to find her in the finance department, if Hakyeon did not chop his head off the moment he stepped in.

Except he found Minah standing by the copier room looking rather worried as he headed over to her only to overhear Hakyeon’s voice from inside the room.

“So when do I need to turn up for this interview?” he nodded as he inspected his nails “right, that’s the position I was talking about it. Of course I’m interesting in coming for it, I just hope I don’t have too much work here,” he laughed “they always bully me and say they hate me so why not?” he said pursing his lips.

Sanghyuk and Minah looked at each other wide eyed, was Hakyeon planning on going for a job interview because he was being overworked here and all his friends took special pleasure in pulling his leg?

“This is your fault!” Minah hissed as Sanghyuk pointed at himself.

“Excuse me, how is this my fault?!”

“Hello, you’re the one who bullies him the most! Plus remember the time you played a prank on him by mucking around with the payroll system? He nearly broke down that day!” Minah exclaimed as Sanghyuk froze.

“Oh…”

“Damn right, oh. Fix this or lose your Head of Finances!” she muttered, moving away as soon as she saw Hakyeon coming out of the copier room. Sanghyuk jumped and hurried away, brain working furiously to figure out a way to avert the possible disaster the company might face if Hakyeon ever left.

“Ah Minah, you organized those files? Good, I just need you to help me out with this software here.” he heard Hakyeon genially say to Minah as the two walked away. He’d have to tell everyone else first. Maybe they could all team up and make sure Hakyeon doesn’t go for the interview and stays here.

Sanghyuk hurried to the tech department which was the closest to the finance department. Spotting Jaehwan hovering over Haneul's cubicle, he sped up to see the man rest his chin on top of her head as he peered into her monitor with his arms resting on her shoulders. Sanghyuk cleared his throat.

“This is the first time I've said it...but we have a code red. A major code red.”

Jaehwan didn’t particularly shift from his position but his eyes shifted up to meet Hyuk’s as Hanuel looked up to shift him off, frowning.

“What’s up?” she asked, as Sanghyuk leaned into the cubicle to whisper.

“Hakyeon is planning on quitting.”

“WHAT?!” Jaehwan exclaimed as Haneul put her hand over his mouth to silence the highly excitable man. He tried to speak beyond the obstruction, but it vain.

“Han Sanghyuk,” she said, turning to Hyuk “please explain.”

“I think it’s best I call a meeting with all the heads and explain. Although Minah was there when Hakyeon was making this decision. We’re probably going to have to stay in the office till Hakyeon leaves and have this discussion. I’ll alert everyone.”

“Are you asking Minah too?” Haneul asked, hand still over Jaehwan’s lips.

“I don’t know if I should.” Sanghyuk pursed his lips “Hakyeon likes her and she was the one who seemed to understand why he wanted to quit.” he sighed.

“Well then you’ll need to ask her to come along.” Haneul said “We’ll have the meeting in the recreation room. It’s a lot more relaxed environment.”

Jaehwan shifted away from Haneul’s hand and resting his chin on her head again “we need a relaxed environment?”

“Incase one of you idiots explodes and throws things around.” Haneul reasoned.

“You mean Taekwoon.” Sanghyuk said.

“You know who I mean.”

“But don’t we have Duckling to control things?” Jaehwan asked, laughing. Sanghyuk and Haneul nodded.

“In case these discussions go on all night, we tell him we pulled an all nighter,” Sanghyuk said “I’ll let everyone else know then.”

The meeting convened amongst a great deal of secrecy. Hongbin groaned as employees snuck glances at the recreation room, wondering why the heads were (not so discreetly) meeting up, looking worried like unlike before.

“Where is Taekwoon?” Wonshik asked, looking at the door.

 “He's on his way. Minah is bringing him along” Sanghyuk told everyone.

“Is it true?” Hongbin asked.

“I still can't believe it” Jaehwan said shaking his head.

 “I don't think it's possible” Wonshik said.

 “I heard it with my own ears” Sanghyuk told them.

“It's not entirely impossible. Hakyeon is good at what he does. If I needed a finance expert I'd hire Hakyeon” Haneul said, biting her lip.

“That's exactly why we sought him. He can't leave us now!” Jaehwan exclaimed.  He pouted in distress and went to hug Haneul who promptly hit him.

 “The real question is how do we get him to stay” Sanghyuk said worriedly.

There was a sudden silence outside. “Uh oh” Haneul thought out loud. A deadly silence could only mean one thing. Silent & Violent was not in his best mood and that meant he was intimidating employees with every breathe he took. Hongbin glanced outside only to see Taekwoon walking over with Minah following with a large cup of coffee. A Latte no doubt because they were Taekwoon's favourite but he wondered how she knew that. Taekwoon walked in and held the door for Minah before shutting it firmly. He took a seat and looked directly at Sanghyuk.

“How did this happen?” he asked in a low voice.

 “Well, we overheard a phone call…” Sanghyuk started.

 “I know that bit. But we have to fix this” he said and everyone murmured in agreement. He took up the coffee and sipped on it while everyone contemplated the answer.

“It's not that hard you know” Minah said crossly.

“What do you mean?” Sanghyuk asked her.

“Isn't it obvious?” she asked indignantly. “He feels overworked. And he also feels unappreciated. You need to let him delegate his responsibilities to more people and also let him know you value his work instead of troubling him all the time” she said looking pointedly at Sanghyuk.

“I agree with Minah” Wonshik said.

 “That's true. We have to be nicer to him” Hongbin added.

 “I can help him divide his work up” Sanghyuk said thoughtfully.

“Good idea” Minah nodded.

“I hope that means you guys are planning an awesome birthday because I trust Minah’s choices” Hakyeon said, leaning against the door, grinning at the group. Everyone started, Jaehwan letting out a high pitched dolphin noise that made everyone cringe. “You know, you guys are really bad at secret planning. Half the office is gossiping about all of you meeting” he laughed.

“Why do you all look like you've lost ten years of your life?” he laughed sitting down next to Taekwoon.

“It was supposed to be a secret meeting” Sanghyuk laughed weakly. “In that case, you should really not choose Hongbin to come along. I swear if you follow everyone's gaze you'll eventually find him” he said with a grin.

“So what cake are you getting me?” he asked nudging Taekwoon. Taekwoon had been silent so far and when he looked up to Hakyeon with dead serious eyes, Haneul's heart stopped. She held onto Wonshik’s hand tightly cutting off the circulation waiting for him to speak.

“We should go out and eat cake” he said, causing Minah to facepalm. Haneul shared a look with Jaehwan.

“Did he just…” Jaehwan asked but his question was lost on the audience.

“Cake? Aren't you going to save that for my birthday?” Hakyeon asked playfully.

“Then samgyeopsal. You like it right?” Taekwoon asked.

“What’s wrong with you?” Hakyeon asked, poking him. Normally this was the point where Hakyeon got either body slammed into tomorrow or neck sliced but here Taekwoon just kept looking at him. “Did someone spike your coffee?” Hakyeon asked, laughing awkwardly. He pretended to pick up the cup and inspect it, all under the constant fixed strong gaze of Taekwoon.

“You caught us. Haha. Maybe not cake but we could eat out tonight” Haneul suggested.

There was an instant wave of agreement that took Hakyeon by surprise. “We should also go for a movie” Wonshik put in. “You really wanted to see that new horror movie right hyung?” he asked, doing aegyo.

“Uh…” Hakyeon blanked out.

“Movie plus food sounds good” Hongbin put in.  

“But I have to work late tonight. We have a regulatory report to submit next week” Hakyeon reminded them.

 “I can help you. I'm good with numbers. Haneul will help us too!” Jaehwan put in.

“I'll just automate the damn thing. Then all you have to do is spend time checking it” Haneul chimed.

“All that is great but I don't think we should mess around with legal reports” Hakyeon said. “We'll finish it early and then watch a movie” Taekwoon decided.

“If it gets too late. We can use the rec room” Sanghyuk suggested.

“Now that everything is sorted I suppose I will leave” Minah told Taekwoon.

“Oh wait Minah, I need your help getting some reports filed before my day off next week” Hakyeon told her.

“You can keep her for an extra week!” Wonshik offered.

“Yeah. She's clearly being productive there” Sanghyuk sassed. Minah glared at him, mentally noting to go looking for neon pink paper for her next set of reports to him.

“I could use the help. I feel like I am getting grey hair from all the stress” Hakyeon joked. “No way! You've never looked better” Jaehwan jumped in. “Yeah. In fact today you look even better than Hongbin.” Hongbin wanted to protest but settled for a tight lipped nod.

 “Really? I thought I looked my worst today. Does that mean I look better than Hongbin on most days?” he asked testing his luck.

“Don't push it” Haneul said before slapping her hand on . Luckily for her Hakyeon just grinned before getting up.

“Because I am generous I will let all of you plan a nice birthday for me!” he said, mock graciously. Minah chuckled weakly before following him out.

 “I think that went a bit better” Jaehwan said in a dead spirit.

“I hope all of you realize that we really failed at being nice to him and we also raised his hopes for a birthday we haven't planned” Hongbin reminded them. Everyone exchanged glances and Taekwoon just blinked.

This was a predicament.

We apologize for the delay, but we've started more projects with VIXX (because we're truly VIXX trash) animeotakupooh has been working on a regency romance fic (sorry, but I freaking adore this fic please do take a peek at it! and we've both been working on College AU VIXX oneshots. But we have not forgotten this fic! We promise! we have a lot of fun stuff planned out so please stick with us and continue showing us your love <3

- Ryukai