Hello and welcome to our three chapter Valentine's Day special. Since we nearly wrote 10k words, we decided we'd upload it over three days as a buildup to Valentine's Day. We are also aware that Korea has a separate Valentine's Day and a White Day, but realized it halfway through the second chapter of the special (oops ^^;) so we went with this. Hope you enjoy it!

Minah groaned, when she entered the office and headed to her seat in the admin department. Sanghyuk had made her aware that it was Valentine's Day and therefore she would have to make appropriate preparations for it.

“Why are we bringing this celebration into the office?” she groaned, only to see more lists on her desk asking her to make purchases for heart shaped sticky notes, cute stationery, and other things from Jaehwan and Wonshik. She knew admin was in charge of logistics and stuff, but this was ridiculous.

“Hello my little house elf, are all the supplies ready?” Sanghyuk stuck his head into her cubicle and Minah rolled her eyes before turning to him.

“Yes. I don’t understand why we’re doing this. But I have all the stupid pink, red, and white supplies you asked for. You’re a real waste of money Han Sanghyuk.” she grumbled.

“Awww are we bitter because we have no Valentine?” Sanghyuk cooed as Minah laughed in response.

“I’ve never had a Valentine, neither do I intend on. Shocking right?” Minah turned back to her desk before fixing the folders on it “now if you'll excuse me, I got a call from Hongbin asking for boxes since his office is full of gifts.”

“Urgh this has been a repeating trend,” Sanghyuk rolled his eyes “either way, going by your sourpuss behaviour, you don’t believe in Valentine’s Day you inhuman creature?”

“I don’t. You don’t need a day of love when you have a lifetime to show the ones you love that you love them. So please don’t expect me to get into the celebratory mood.” Minah shrugged in response.

“Good morning!” Wonshik greeted cheerfully as he walked over. Minah and Sanghyuk greeted him in response.

“You got the supplies! Perfect timing. Let me call Jaehwan” he said, looking around for the Creative Head.

“Did you really need so many sticky notes and cards?” Minah asked. Wonshik turned pink as he laughed sheepishly.

“Well, you see. Sanghyuk had this brilliant idea that we should decorate Haneul’s cubicle for today! So we’re going to make her cards and put small teddy bears all over the place” he told her.

“I even brought balloons!” Jaehwan said, popping up from nowhere which was really a surprise because he actually had balloons in his hand that could easily be spotted from a mile away.

“Card, teddy bears and messages… I can’t believe you guys forgot flowers!” Sanghyuk said, faking a gasp.

“Oh ” Jaehwan swore under his breath.

“I’m going to go get some straight away” Wonshik said.

“I’m going to put these at her cubicle” Jaehwan sang to himself as he walked (glided) away.

“You’re just doing this because you want to see Haneul irritated don’t you?” Minah asked, narrowing her eyes at Sanghyuk.

“Noooo” Sanghyuk stretched out his reply. “I genuinely believe that today might be the best day for those two to express their affections to her. You said I should be a matchmaker for them and what better day…” he was cut off by Minah.

“This is revenge because Haneul found and deleted your secret folder again, didn’t she?” Minah asked knowingly.

“Is it a crime to have a collection of anime on your work computer?!” Sanghyuk yelled dramatically before grumbling to himself and leaving.

“Today is going to be interesting” Minah said to herself. She knew that Haneul liked cute things but no one would like their entire desk covered by ridiculous fluffy pink things as they tried to work. She chuckled to herself, deciding to take boxes over to Hongbin’s cubicle. He would probably need a break from the attention today and she had nothing in particular to do.

“Someone is in a bright mood” Minah said with a grin when she found Hongbin sulking in his office as he vainly tried to clean up the pink confetti. She saw familiar heart shaped post it notes and sighed, recognising Sanghyuk’s handwriting on the cheesy messages. “I’m peachy. Perfectly peachy” Hongbin said sarcastically. Minah raised an eyebrow and he sighed. “Sanghyuk left cheesy messages on my desk at the morning and now everyone in the office is somehow convinced we are dating” Hongbin said with an irritated tone.

“Oh god” Minah said as she started to laugh.

“It’s not funny! I also overheard people saying that stupid accidental kiss during the MT wasn’t accidental at all. And that Sanghyuk was a very cute jealous boyfriend who apparently “defended” my honour from Youngbae” he said with a facepalm. He protested while Minah had to hold onto the cubicle walls to keep herself steady as she laughed.

“I don’t need my honour defended! I just spent an entire listening to a client go on and on about his cheesy valentine’s day plans. I need my sanity defended!” Hongbin yelled, shoving chocolate boxes into the larger boxes that Minah had brought over.

“I heard you decided to start dating the Devil” Hakyeon said, walking into the cubicle.

“I’m not dating Sanghyuk” Hongbin said crossly.

“Is that why the number of chocolate boxes is only half this year?” Hakyeon asked, looking at his desk.

“That’s the only good thing that has come out of this stupid rumour” Hongbin grumbled.

“Well, I brought some more chocolate!” Hakyeon said holding up a box. “And I got you one too!” he said, handing an identical box over to Minah.

“Why does it have to be pink” Hongbin grumbled. Minah sympathised with his cringing. Hakyeon frowned and hit Hongbin on his neck. “Just be grateful for the chocolate” he said, scolding him. They sensed a shiver go down their spine as a dark ball of energy passed through the corridors. “Did Taekwoon become short?” Hakyeon asked as he watched the dark ball enter the pantry.

“I think that was Haneul” Minah said.

“Didn’t she have a meeting with that tech company for advertising? What was their name… New Age Robotics?” Hongbin asked with a frown. He looked around till he spotted Song Jongkook and called him over. “Jongkook! How did the meeting with New Age Robotics go?” he asked.

“Well, I think it went well… but now I truly understand why you find Kim Haneul terrifying” Jongkook confessed sheepishly. “I lost them once the meeting descended into techno babble to be honest with you.”

“She didn’t scare the guy away did she?” Hongbin asked wearily. There was a reason Haneul was called Monster.

“No! That’s the surprising part. The marketing guy was extremely happy and looked very convinced by whatever Haneul was saying. I don’t think he really understood it either” Jongkook told them. “But the tech guy he brought along seemed intimidated by her.”

“I guess we’ll have to wait and see. Thank you” Hongbin said sending Jongkook off. “For someone who tells Taekwoon not to scare clients away, Haneul should really stop glaring down clients in her own meetings” Hakyeon said with a huff.

“I think I might have to step in and find out what actually happened” Hongbin said, concerned about what was happening with that client.  New Age Robotics was a tech startup that had recently acquired funding from a few prominent VCs and was said to be a promising company. They had chosen VIXX Consultancies for their marketing campaign because they wanted someone very tech savvy and had been impressed by Haneul. But Hongbin was starting to rethink his decision of leaving this company to Haneul entirely. How had he forgotten Haneul’s habit of scary talking people she didn’t like? And to be honest, the head of New Age Robotics was a rather trying man.

“I think we should say goodbye to Wonshik and Jaehwan while we still can” Minah said. “Why?” Hakyeon asked worriedly. “Sanghyuk “inspired” them to cover her cubicle with gross cute things and if she really is sulking right now, she just might chew those two alive” Minah told them.

“It was nice knowing those two” Hongbin agreed.

“I swear they have the worst timing ever” Hakyeon said as he watched the two walk into the pantry as well, looking clearly pleased with themselves. On the right, the three of them could see Haneul’s cubicle which looked like a unicorn had exploded all over it.

“They are going to die” Hongbin announced, continuing to pick up the chocolate boxes. Hakyeon shrugged and was about to walk back to his office when surprised yelps were heard from the direction of the copier room.

“Let’s go save them” Minah laughed.

Haneul was fuming, how on earth could a tech head of a company which dealt with robotics know so little about tech? Her fingers tightened around the folder that needed to be copied for the record as she headed towards the copier room. She spotted Wonshik hurrying into the room as well, hands clutching onto something as he shut the door behind him. Sighing and ready to rant, she shoved the door open only to have the vision of Wonshik’s rippling back muscles.

Haneul’s jaw dropped as a yelp escaped her lips causing him to turn around and give her an entire view of his strong abdominal muscles which Haneul was aware of but at the same time was always shocked to see.

“H-Haneul!” he gasped, holding his shirt up as a shield.

“Kim Wonshik! What on earth?!”

“Uh,” he began looking around the room awkwardly “I might have spilled coffee on myself, so Jaehwan lent me a shirt for the day?” he said, holding the shirt up and flashing his abdominal muscles at Haneul yet again.

“Oh dear god, could you not change in the bathroom?!” Haneul exploded.

“The copier room was closer,” he whined, still not clothing himself in any manner “what are you doing here anyway?”

“I’m here to scan and copy this report. Because this is a copier room. I am also annoyed, because the meeting I was in was a pain.” she said, trying to brush past Wonshik to get to the copier.

“Bad day?” he asked as Haneul nodded, not daring to turn around. But she really didn't need to as Wonshik’s bare arms wrapped around her waist as her back pressed against his bare chest making her cognizant of his heartbeat and even more aware of the ripped muscles he was so proud of.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!”

“I’m giving you a hug!” he said, his voice reverberating against her back as she turned around and placed her hands on the strong chest and shoved him away.

“Wear your clothes Kim Wonshik or I will kill you!”

“Okay! Okay!” he said, slipping on the shirt and buttoning it up. Haneul clenched at the copier machine, why did these men enjoy giving her heart attacks? She grumbled, trying to calm herself down before getting back to copying the file.

“Are you clothed now?” she called as Wonshik chuckled in response.

“Yes, yes I am.”

“Good,” Haneul said turning to see that Wonshik was right “I’m heading to the break room for some lemon tea.” she said shoving the door open, only to see Minah, Hakyeon, and Hongbin standing outside looking thoroughly smug.

“What?!”

“Half Wonshik, eh?” Hongbin smirked as Haneul resisted the urge to smack his pretty face.

“Everyone. Shut up.” she growled, storming towards the break room as the three read a pink post it now stuck on her back which said “My pretty flower.”

Minah fought the urge to laugh before she wondered out loud “Is your table full of stuff too Hakyeon?”

“Yep,” he puffed up with pride “everything anonymous because no one likes telling me they like me directly.”

“I like you.” Minah declared, making Hongbin cringe “I like you too BeanMan, so do cringe some more.” she grinned before frowning and whispering to the two men with her “what about Boss man? Do people fill his office with things?”

“Well,” Hongbin said thoughtfully “Sanghyuk got him a cactus last year.”

“And Haneul gave him a box of chocolates.” Hakyeon added.

“You gave him a giant box of choco-pies and doughnuts.” Hongbin rolled his eyes at Hakyeon as Hakyeon grinned sheepishly.

“I also asked him to be my Valentine and got thrown out of his office.”

“Injung had made him a card, which was why I asked.” Minah sighed as the two men lit up at the sound of her niece’s name.

“Where is my card?” Hakyeon demanded as Minah chuckled in response.

“One finger painting at a time. She was tired after she made a card for her Prince. She wanted to make one for everyone, but she dozed off on the table. See?” she said, pulling her phone out and scrolling through her camera roll to show them a picture of the tiny human asleep on a low table, hands covered in paint.

“So cute!” Hakyeon cooed and Hongbin smiled as they peered into the screen.

“Is that a picture of Injungie?” Sanghyuk’s voice boomed through the corridor as he joined the group peering into the phone only to be joined by Taekwoon who had been walking past and triggered by the name of the cute child.

“Oh there you are!” Minah smiled at Taekwoon “Injungie made a card for you.” she said, handing it over to the stoic man whose face lit up at the sight of it. The men’s attention was now diverted to the card making Minah laugh “My brother wants to meet the man who is his daughter’s prince.” she added causing a silence to fill the corridor as Taekwoon’s soul left his body.

“I don’t know about Taekwoon meeting him. But Haneul sure does.” Sanghyuk piped up as Minah raised her eyebrow.

“Is this because she thinks he’s hot?”

“Maybe?”

“But my brother says he knows you.” she turned back to Taekwoon, who now looked like his soul had not only left his body, but had buried itself fifty feet underground.

“Yeah, about that…” Hakyeon began as Minah shook her head.

“He said he’d never seen a better sport on the field.”

Everyone’s jaw dropped as Taekwoon’s soul stopped halfway through its digging towards hell and sprinted its way back to his body.

“R-really?” he said as Minah nodded.

“Well, now that the card has been delivered, I shall return to stating that Valentine’s Day is all propaganda and a waste of material and money. Thank you for your time gentlemen, but I think I have a Jaehwan to save.”

As Minah walked into the break room, she was Haneul trying to pull Jaehwan’s ears in punishment. Wonshik who was already present in the pantry couldn’t stop dying of laughter as he struggled to hold his phone up to record this potential blackmail material.

“Explain yourselves” Minah sighed, nudging Haneul away from the poor man who was squealing in pain.

“I work with idiots!” Haneul said furiously, still trying to yank at Jaehwan’s ear as Minah looked at Jaehwan.

“What did you do?”

“Aegyo to ask her to be my Valentine.” he mumbled, pouting as he looked down like a kicked puppy causing Haneul to halt her struggled. Again, why were these men trying to kill her?!

“Have you heard of her talk--get-hit policy?” Minah tried to explain.

“Yes, but I didn’t think it applied to me.” he continued to look mournful as Wonshik cracked up.

“Hey, but then again, why don’t you two show her  cubicle? I heard there were some nice things there.” Mianh continued, looking at the two men as Haneul looked confused. Minah wondered if Han Sanghyuk was a bad influence on her.

“Why do you say anything, you don’t believe in the day of love.” Jaehwan pouted at Minah who shrugged.

“Not stopping you from piling things on other people’s tables.”

The group dispersed for nearly fifteen minutes of silence which took over the office.

“Why does my table look like the whole Hallmark store took a giant dump on it?!” Haneul's voice could be heard, breaking the brief silence as Wonshik and Jaehwan ran to the desk followed closely by Minah, Sanghyuk, and a grumpy Taekwoon who had come to figure out what all the noise was about.

“I can't see my computer over all of this!” Haneul grumbled to Jaehwan who tried to distract her with heart shaped sticky notes only for her to grab them from his hand. Write “IDIOT” in bold and stick it on his forehead.

“Should have shown her the teddy bear.” Wonshik mumbled, only to have and idiot sticky not for his forehead too.

“Damn, this cubical is a cringe fest on its own,” Minah whispered “these two have submitted to the system.”

“Huh?” Sanghyuk blinked as Haneul turned to him.

“Valentine's day is some sort of propaganda to fill people's desks with so much gooey cheese that it gets overwhelming.”

“Right?” Minah agreed as Sanghyuk watched in horror. Minah couldn't turn Haneul over to the dark cynical side! And look at Wonshik and Jaehwan looking like kicked puppies! He rounded to Minah.

“Excuse me, but I will show you how Valentine's Day can be wonderful by showering you with love!” He declared earning a glare from Taekwoon who stood behind Minah. He turned back to Haneul and said “they got you a teddy bear. It's right beside your computer.” this sufficiently distracted Haneul who had a soft spot for Teddy bears.

Taekwoon silently retreated as Minah helped Haneul clear her desk and return to her desk in the admin department. She didn't miss Hongbin frantically clearing his desk out, his inner neat freak now fully unleashed. Wonshik had given her the task of delivering message around the office and she felt an awful lot like an intern rather than a paid employee. Half of the messages from Wonshik and Jaehwan were to Haneul who replied with curt words asking them to get back to work. She then handed over notes from Sanghyuk to Hongbin who groaned in frustration before replying with none too kind words which requires to be censored as it is not appropriate for work.

“Nice.” Minah said, going over the crisp white slip of paper before leaving the office to deliver anonymous love notes to Hakyeon and slip some under Taekwoon's door as he was taking a call. When she returned to her desk with for a short break, she found five bouquets of flowers.

Frowning, she read the notes on them. Four were from Sanghyuk addressing her as his most beloved house elf. When she read the note for the fifth one, she rolled her eyes. Lee Joon had sent her flowers calling her his favourite employee in VIXX Consultancies. Quickly picking up one of the spare sticky notes, she scribbled a message to Sanghyuk.

“I don't like bouquets. They die soon, just like you will if you send any more.”

She sighed and headed over to Sanghyuk's office and tossed it at him as he caught it in surprise before reading it and shooting her a sulky look.

“Don't think I've given up!” He called after her as she rolled her eyes again.

The next time it was balloons as Minah cringes at the heart shaped floating nuisances which now bobbed above her chair. Han Sanghyuk had another note tossed at him.

“Hate balloons. They smell terrible and they burst. How is giving me a sack of your breath showing me you love me?”

Sanghyuk wondered if he should take another traditional route. And thus Minah found several boxes of chocolates on her desk and sighed, picking her pen up again.

“Can't eat so much sweet. Also these won't last long if I take them home. Injung will finish them and fall sick and it'll be your fault.”

Sanghyuk chose to just use Minah as the messenger of love for the rest of the day. Which frustrated her no end this causing more notes to be sent around the office which simply read.

“No.”

“Hell no.”

“Valentine’s Day is propaganda created by aliens known as Hallmark.”

"You are succumbing to the system."

"This is systematized romance" she finally sent to Sanghyuk who replied with “What do you know about romance?"

"Knowledge is power" Minah scribbled.

"I WILL SHOW YOU ROMANCE" Sanghyuk's handwriting was bordering illegible at this point.

"Shaddup Sanghyuk." Minah replied eloquently. "Foucault is right. You all believe you are being watched and thus perform the function that society expects you to and police people who don't while policing yourselves."

"Huh?" Sanghyuk blinked at the sheet and looked up at Minah who grinned at him.

"Panopticon. Google it."

"Minah is crazy." He wrote, only to have her snatch the paper from him and hiss.

"Stop using me as a messenger if you're going to call me crazy"

"Oops." He wrote as she fought the urge to facepalm.

"Ah well, we are all going to die anyway." She sighed.

"What?" Sanghyuk was now utterly baffled by everything Minah said.

"Nihilism. Google it."

“I would appreciate it if you two didn't waste so much paper.” Taekwoon's voice broke Sanghyuk's bewilderment as he turned to Taekwoon with his newfound knowledge.

"We shall not succumb to the system!" He said as Taekwoon raised his eyebrow at him. Minah leaned over to whisper to Sanghyuk.

"Uh Hyuk, the system is paying you."

"Oh, right. Sorry. Won't happen again!” Sanghyuk grinned at Taekwoon who shot him another look before walking away.

“Is this warning and succumbing only because you have the hots for the system?” Sanghyuk turned back to Minah who was now back to wanting to face palm. Sighing, she left his office and headed back to her seat only to find a new pile of notes which had been placed on her desk to deliver around the office.

She sighed, only to hear her phone buzz as she pulled it out of her pocket. Her eyes widened when she saw a notification from Jung Taekwoon. Did he have a message for her to deliver and if he did, who did he like for him to want to send this message to?

Unlocking her phone, she saw that it was an instagram notification, tapping it open, she noticed that it was a direct message. Her eyes widened as she saw three puppies squirming around in a cardboard box. She held back a squeal as she sat down and looked at the video he had sent her.

Then another was sent, a black labrador puppy running around someone’s backyard before crashing into the camera. Another with a golden retriever puppy in a onesie. Minah held back a series of squeals as she bite down on her lip and scrunched her eyes at her screen.

“So you like puppy videos?”  Taekwoon’s voice made her nearly drop her phone. She looked up at him leaning on the cubicle parting as he indicated to her phone.

“I love dogs. And cats. And animals in general.” Minah mumbled as Taekwoon nodded.

“There’s a puppy cafe close by.” he said as Minah looked up at him with wide eyes.

“Really? Where?”

“Well, not sure of the location, I stumbled upon the place. I was planning on going today, if you’d like to come along. They make a really good cup of coffee too.”

Minah’s mind was now focused on puppies “I’d love to! I’ll take Injungie there the next time!”

“Yo, House Elf,” Sanghyuk walked past Taekwoon to place more notes on her table “Binnie and I are going for a movie, wanna come?”

“Uh, don’t want to third wheel on your date.” Minah cringed as Sanghyuk laughed.

“Hongbin cringed the same way. Wonshik said he was going bar hopping with Jaehwan and Haneul. Pretty sure Taekwoon here is going out with Hakyeon.” he grinned, only to get whacked by Taekwoon “Just deliver those.” he said to Minah before walking out of her cubicle.

“So, is Hakyeon coming with us?” Minah turned to Taekwoon as he shrugged.

“I’ll check and see. But I’m leaving at around five…”

“I’ll see you at the visitors lounge then.”

Minah turned away before turning back to her desk to find the notes missing. When she looked around for them she simply couldn’t find them. When she looked up and over her cubicle, she could see Taekwoon heading back into his office with an ‘idiot’ sticky note stuck on his forehead. Typical Haneul work. She smiled, now she knew who had taken the notes.