“Houston, we have a problem.” Sanghyuk said as he settled down for lunch as Wonshik struggled to get the lid of his box of food open. Jaehwan reached over and popped it open easily before stealing a carrot stick from Haneul’s box much to her annoyance as she swatted his hand away.

“Why? What’s up?” she asked, shifting as Taekwoon lumbered in to join them at the cramped table. Minah was busy handling things in the finance department since Hakyeon had gone for his interview in some finance magazine for “TOP FINANCE HEADS IN START UPS” and had entrusted some work to her. Hongbin on the other hand was out with a client for lunch. Sanghyuk eyed Taekwoon with some hesitance before clearing his throat.

“We had an application for a job today.”

“Don’t we have several of those?” Wonshik asked through a mouthful of food.

“Not from the likes of Kim Jiwon.” Sanghyuk rolled his eyes as Taekwoon straightened up and Haneul groaned.

“Why is he applying here?” Jaehwan asked with a mouthful of food, ignoring the looks he got from Wonshik.

“Tourism isn’t really working out well for him apparently. Plus he’s highly qualified in English, just like Minah, so he applied for the English Language Consultant role…”

“No.” Taekwoon simply stated as he set to eating his lunch.

“You can’t ‘no’ a qualified person simply because you have a bad impression of him.” Sanghyuk rolled his eyes, shooting Haneul a wink in an attempt to get to her to help riling Taekwoon up.

“Makes sense, you should call him for an interview. Maybe ask Minah to sit in on it since she’s pretty much the only one who can test him in the language.” Haneul nodded adding fuel to the fire as Taekwoon fumed.

“No, I will not have him setting foot in this office.”

“Your bias doesn’t matter.” Sanghyuk stated plainly as Wonshik nodded.

“We need qualified people.”

“No a man who will flirt with anything that moves.” Taekwoon grumbled.

“Oh so Minah is ‘anything that moves’?” Haneul quirked her eyebrow as Taekwoon glared at her.

“I am talking about everyone in the office.”

“You’re very bad at lying.” Jaehwan commented as Sanghyuk nodded.

“I called him in anyway, he will be coming in tomorrow.”

“Which part of no did you not get?!” Taekwoon exclaimed as Minah hurried into the room to grab a glass of water. There was a sudden silence making her turn around to look at the group who were now staring intently at her.

“Yes?” she asked, before taking a gulp of the water and rinsing the glass and replacing it, getting no response she cleared “Slimy Lizard is asking for me since Hongbin is in another meeting, so apparently I have to go.”

“No” Taekwoon said firmly.

“No?” Minah asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Ignore Taekwoon. I think you should take an extra hour off for lunch because BeanMan can use the help” Haneul interrupted.

“No” Taekwoon reiterated.

“But Hakyeon’s work is going to take time” Minah told them.

“I'm all done for the day! I can help. You should go help Hongbin” Haneul insisted.

“There will be no need for that. I shall go help Hongbin. Minah can stay” Taekwoon said firmly.

“True. I can tell you about Kim Jiwon's application too. You can help me assess if he gets an interview” Sanghyuk put in.

“He's applied for the role of an English Language Consultant as well” Wonshik told her.

“Yeah! You would be a good judge of the qualifications needed” Jaehwan agreed.

“Kim Jiwon, the tour guide from the MT?” Minah asked, surprised.

“Tourism isn't working out for him” Sanghyuk said with a shrug.

“Why does no one listen to me here?” Taekwoon groaned before stealing a carrot from Haneul.

“Hey! Get your own” Haneul protested. “What is it with you people and stealing my carrots?” she grumbled, shielding her lunch. Taekwoon narrowed his eyes and poked her in the arm causing Haneul to yelp and back away and he stole more carrots.

“Everyone go back to work now. I will go meet Lizard Face” Taekwoon said, getting up. Jaehwan chuckled at the nickname before taking more carrots (Haneul had eventually given up).

“I'll go back to work then” Minah said, walking out.

“We're not actually ever hiring Kim Jiwon” Wonshik said flatly.  

“Yeah! On a more serious note. We are never hiring him” Jaehwan said.

“It's just not a possibility” Wonshik insisted.

“In no universe” Jaehwan added.

“Nope” Wonshik said popping the ‘p’ sound.

“No no no” Jaehwan said. Wonshik took more carrots from the box Haneul had pushed towards the two hungry men and the two of them started singing to the chorus of Hate by 4minute.

“You're both very weird” Haneul said flatly before walking away.

“You know I'm never going to hire him right?” Sanghyuk asked.

“It's still a no!” Jaehwan said while Wonshik nodded. Sanghyuk just shook his head.

“I saw how he behaved with Minah and after both your explosive reactions, I can see he tried to pull a move on Haneul too.” he said, finishing his lunch as Wonshik and Jaehwan nodded.

Haneul sighed “as long as you don’t call him for an interview.”

“I won’t I won’t. But what I will do right now is take a peek on Taekwoon’s meeting with Lizard because this is going to be entertaining as hell” he grinned.

“Screw peeking, I’ll just route the CCTV to your laptop, we’ll all watch it.” Haneul chuckled making everyone else laugh.

“I’ll get my sketchbook, I need ideas for a new strip.” Jaehwan said, bouncing up from his seat.

“Do we need snacks?” Wonshik asked as everyone shook their heads. They piled up in Sanghyuk’s office as Haneul brushed past him and logged into his laptop.

“Hey! That’s password protected!” Sanghyuk whined making Haneul quirk her eyebrow with an incredulous laugh.

“EVERYBODYISMYHOUSEELF is not exactly a powerful password Sanghyuk.” she commented messing around with the keys till she turned the screen around and a fuzzy image of Taekwoon entered the meeting room.

“There is no sound.” Wonshik blinked as Haneul sighed.

“We aren’t rich enough to install mics as well.”

“It’s like watching television on mute.” Jaehwan commented, dragging a chair noisily towards the screen.

“I wonder what they’re saying though.” Haneul commented as she squeezed in between Wonshik and Jaehwan.

“Why are you back? Why have you not disappeared from the face of this planet Lizard man?” Sanghyuk’s voice was strange when he tried to imitate Taekwoon’s soft tone.

“I am here to save my damsel in distress.” Jaehwan said as Joon placed his hand on the table and stood up trying to one up Taekwoon in height.

“You had to make this dramatic didn’t you?” Wonshik mumbled as Haneul cracked up.

“Please, enlighten me on what you think they’re saying.” Jaehwan challenged.

“The damsel is not in distressed, she is safe and sound in my strong muscular arms.” Sanghyuk continued as the three beside him looked at him suspiciously. “Hello, he is HotBody. Let us not forget that.”

“I’d rather her be in my arms,” Wonshik replied “My slimy slippery arms.” Jaehwan added.

“You’d rather be in my arms.” Sanghyuk mumbled as the three burst out laughing.

“Gentlemen, we have a new OTP,” Haneul declared “TaekZard? LiWoon? What could we call them?”

“WoonJoon?” Wonshik suggested as Jaehwan squealed.

“Oh my god, look Taekwoon is moving over to him! Look look!”

“We can all see Jaehwan.” Sanghyuk mumbled.

“Maybe Lizard was all ‘Oh I wanna feel your arms around me.’” Wonshik chuckled as the other three laughed.

“Hold on, the door is opening.” Haneul looked up at the screen.

“Hey hey, it’s the damsel causing trouble in paradise.” Sanghyuk pointed to Minah entering the room with a folder in her hand.

“Taekwoon looks like he’s been caught.” Jaehwan noted the wide-eyed boss looking at Minah.

“It’s not what it looks like!” Wonshik imitated Taekwoon.

“We’re still creepily in love with you!” Jaehwan declared as Joon looked back up at Minah with a weak smile.

“Oh you fiends!” Wonshik’s attempt at a high pitched voice could have shattered glass as Minah dropped the folder on table “maybe I should kiss both of you and see which one is a better kisser and pick my favourite.”

“Your brain is a weird place Wonshik.” Sanghyuk commented.

“I think that’s why Taekwoon is making a beeline for her,” Jaehwan commented “probably saying something like ‘Kiss me oh beautiful maiden, kiss my soft lips instead of those slimy ones.’”

“Please don’t join in on Wonshik’s creepiness.” Haneul sighed.

“Hey guys, what’s going on?” Hongbin peeked into the room.

“Oh! Taekwoon I thought you’d never ask!” Wonshik’s screech took over the silence.

“We’re watching Taekwoon’s meeting with Lizard and trying to figure out what they’re saying.” Sanghyuk explained.

“But I thought I asked Minah to handle that.” Hongbin blinked peering into the screen.

“You came at the right part, Taekwoon and Lizard love each other and they also love Minah so there is this crazy triangle that is formed which can only be solved when they all kiss each other. You are now up to speed.” Jaehwan nodded as Hongbin cringed at the entire idea.

“Well, Taekwoon wouldn’t let Minah meet Lizard because he’s a jealous pig who is permanently in denial. But Minah just walked in with a folder so right now this is what we can see.” Haneul actually filled Hongbin in.

“Minah is heading towards Slimy! Oh no! Will she kiss the frog?” Sanghyuk dramatically declared.

“This is not an episode of the Bachelorette.” Hongbin mumbled.

Minah nodded and left the room as Jaehwan squealed “Find out who gets the rose in the next episode of the Bachelorette - VIXX Consultancy Edition!”

“I saw her whisper to Taekwoon as she left so I’m placing my bets on him.” Sanghyuk nodded.

“I mean, look at that smug look on his face. Oh hold on, he’s saying something.” Wonshik peered into the screen, his chair creaking in the process.

“Nyeh nyeh nyeh nyeh nyehhh you can’t touch her~” Jaehwan sing-songed, not bothering to imitate Taekwoon’s voice. Haneul fought the urge to squish him right then.

“You guys are seriously doing this instead of working.” Hongbin groaned exasperated only to jump when Minah appeared beside him with a “hey!” making everyone scramble to hide the screen.

“Okay then…” Minah looked around at the group suspiciously “ I’m assuming it’s a new BossCat strip meeting, but I’d like you to know that Hakyeon will be back soon and he’s me very excitedly texting me about wanting to have kids. Please mentally prepare yourselves.”

“Mini Hakyeons would be so cute.” Haneul sighed.

“And would drive us all insane.” Sanghyuk commented as Haneul glared at him.

“The only one who would be happy with mini anything is Taekwoon. He’ll kidnap all the babies if you give him a chance.” Wonshik said as everyone laughed in agreement as Minah blinked.

“Never took him for a baby lover. Huh. Interesting.”

“I didn’t think you guys would be talking about babies before I arrived! Hello meet one of best finance heads in a start up!” Hakyeon squeezed himself into the room and slammed his hand on the table.

“We need to have a ‘bring your kid to work’ day!”

“None of us have kids.” Sanghyuk blinked.

“But think about all the little bundles of joy! Please! The magazine place had one too and it was so nice!” Hakyeon whined.

“Taekwoon would also be in a great mood.” Haneul observed as Wonshik and Jaehwan nodded.

“Well then, I shall figure something out.” Sanghyuk sighed as the room cheered.

“Why can’t we have a bring a puppy to work day?” Minah sighed.

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