I wanted to get this out on your actual AFF birthday, love, so it's not really edited. Sorry for any mistakes and I hope you enjoy my present! <3

“Remind me again why you want to bother me at my work place 3 hours a day for two weeks straight?” The phone that Junmyeon’s speaking into is balanced precariously between his shoulder and his ear because his hands are completely full of cases he just spent half a day manually filing. Such is the life of the sole manager over the most understaffed social work office in Incheon; Junmyeon loves his job but when he distractedly trips on air, dropping both the phone and all the papers he’s holding, he kind of wishes he’d gone on to law school like Kyungsoo.

“I like working with people I know,” Kyungsoo answers nonchalantly, “It’s less effort than breaking in someone new.”

Junmyeon would be rolling his eyes if the phone wasn’t buried under a large pile of documents; instead he’s scrambling to make sure he doesn’t miss any loose sheets as he picks everything up and doesn’t actually hear Kyungsoo’s response at all.

“Fine, whatever,” he agrees anyway, exasperated enough by the thought of filing all the papers all over again that he frankly doesn’t care what Kyungsoo’s reason is. “See you Monday.”

“Thanks, hyung!” Kyungsoo sounds grateful enough as he hangs up the call and Junmyeon hopes his friend will be grateful enough not to mind the menial tasks he’ll likely be doing for most of the 30 hours of his pro bono requirement.

“You have a placement already?” Minseok marvels. Kyungsoo raises an accusing eyebrow but Minseok ignores the displeasure on his classmate’s face. “I’m sitting right next to you, Soo. Kind of hard not to hear, you know?” Kyungsoo accepts this and nods once before turning his attention back to his phone to send a quick note to his primary advisor. “Anyway,” Minseok continues, “want to hook a brother up?”

Kyungsoo’s sneer is answer enough. “I am not your brother,” he nevertheless responds. “And we’re supposed to secure our placements on our own; you know the rules.”

Minseok appears to have expected such a reaction and merely smiles. “That’s exactly what I’m doing!” Kyungsoo looks skeptical so Minseok adds “Securing my own placement through you.” When that’s still not enough to convince his friend to help him, Minseok clasps his hands together, puts his best pout on his face, and drops the magic word: “Please?”

As usually happens with Kyungsoo, simply saying “Please” is enough to ensure his cooperation. The Do boy even smiles as he redials Junmyeon, excited by the prospect of suffering through their graduation requirement with Minseok at his side.

His pleased anticipation is warranted, especially when Minseok meets him at the subway station on their first day with Kyungsoo’s usual coffee order in hand.

“I know how you get without caffeine this early in the morning,” he teases. Kyungsoo remembers the internship he, Minseok, and select other law students had together last summer and accepts the offering with a tired smile.

It’s thankfully enough to wake Kyungsoo fully by the time they arrive at the social work office, and he manages to stay cordial even when Junmyeon greets him with a hug and everyone else assumes it’s acceptable to do the same. Minseok huffs in quiet laughter at that but is quick to step away when one of the social workers, a man of average height with light brown hair and a mischievously curling smile, comes closer with his arms outstretched. Minseok drops into a 90 degree bow just to be safe and Kyungsoo follows suit.

“Kyungsoo and Minseok,” Junmyeon tells his employees with appropriate gestures to indicate who is who. He then turns to the law students and introduces “Tao, Jongin, and Jongdae.”

Kyungsoo gets an eager wave from Tao and he’s confused until he vaguely registers the tall panda as Junmyeon’s boyfriend from China. The one Junmyeon called Jongin whispers an almost silent greeting to them both and reciprocates their bows with one of his own. Jongdae bows too but when he straightens he’s grinning widely enough that Kyungsoo considers the expression sort of dangerous. Evidently Junmyeon does too because he wastes no time in continuing his orientation.

“I’ve assigned you each to one of my guys,” he tells the law students. “Kyungsoo, you’re with Jongin. Minseok-ssi, you’ll be working with Jongdae. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask!”

When Kyungsoo nods and Minseok shoots the supervisor a double thumbs up, Junmyeon looks unbelievably relieved and excuses himself to his tiny office as soon as he’s able. Tao trails behind his boyfriend, waving goodbye to the newcomers over his broad shoulder.

“Please take care of me,” Kyungsoo requests of Jongin politely. The other man inclines his head in agreement as Minseok echoes Kyungsoo’s words to his own new work partner.

“Please take care of me, Jongdae-ssi,” he says.

Jongdae’s grin spreads across his face again and he nods. “No problem,” he agrees. “I’ll even do you pro bono.”

Kyungsoo coughs in discomfort and considers this a good moment to sneak away. He mimes escaping to Jongin and the two men step away from the office lobby as quietly as they can. Still, Minseok’s response is easy to hear.

“Please, you can’t even afford my hourly rate.”

For some reason that makes Jongin snicker and Kyungsoo thinks it’s pretty cute. “Good thing Jongdae only needs like 20 minutes,” the younger social worker remarks. His comment startles Kyungsoo into openmouthed laughter, particularly when Junmyeon calls out through his open door, “I don’t even want to know how you know that, Jongin.”

“I kind of want to know how he knows,” Kyungsoo whispers to Junmyeon when they all go out for drinks after work that day.

“I’ll tell you if you’re really that curious,” Jongin pipes up. Kyungsoo grimaces; he hadn’t thought Jongin could hear their conversation over the sounds of his own.

“Kyungsoo has to ask nicely first,” he informs the others with a chuckle. “Like he always makes everyone else do.”

Kyungsoo accepts the teasing with a raised fist and a threatening smile, successfully ending that conversation before pushing himself off his seat and offering, “I’m going to get another drink. Anyone want anything?”

Junmyeon holds up his still full glass and Minseok shakes his head. The other three accept. Jongin, though, is the only one who makes sure to say “Yes, please, Kyungsoo,” and as such he’s the only person for whom Kyungsoo brings a refill when he returns with his own.

Tao pouts to Junmyeon that his lawyer friend is an old-fashioned stick-in-the-mud, but it’s really Jongdae’s begrudgingly amused “Hardass” that sticks. Kyungsoo doesn’t answer when Minseok and his coworkers—excluding Jongin—call him that, but it doesn’t keep the employees of the social work office from using the nickname anyway for the rest of the time the law students are there.

Jongdae even slips up and says, “Hey, Hardass, what’s the precedent for this kind of case?” while in a meeting with a couple who are trying to adopt a child from the foster system.

Kyungsoo gasps because Jongdae’s behavior is totally unprofessional, and it makes him happy when Jongin gently chides his fellow social worker for his words. Minseok apologizes to their client but can’t help joining in their laughter once he realizes they aren’t upset by the incident. Kyungsoo’s kind of upset, though, so he’s at least expecting a little sympathy from his friend when he complains to Junmyeon about it later. He doesn’t get any.

“That was your 3:30, right? Sehun and Baekhyun?” Junmyeon clarifies behind the hand he’s raised to hide his amusement. Kyungsoo nods and then Junmyeon does too. “Honestly, Soo, their case is so ridiculous that I’m not surprised they found it all hilarious.”

Kyungsoo knows a little about the Oh-Byun case: Sehun and Baekhyun are husbands with a third, Luhan, who is not only Chinese but also has two biological children of his own, and all three are trying to legally adopt Park Chanyeol, a teenage boy they’ve been fostering together since he was a kid. It’s all kinds of complicated and requires some serious legal finagling on Kyungsoo and Minseok’s part—which is why Junmyeon had ordered all hands on deck for this case and why it was fast consuming most of the 30 hours of the two students’ graduation requirement.

“Still,” Kyungsoo counters, trying to maintain his slight annoyance in the face of the total craziness of the whole situation. “It was unprofessional.”

Junmyeon sighs but Kyungsoo’s not wrong and the supervisor eventually agrees to talk to his employee on his friend’s behalf. Jongin happens to be making himself some peppermint tea when Junmyeon corners Jongdae in the office’s kitcheette that afternoon, and he certainly doesn’t miss the opportunity to stick out his tongue at his coworker as he gets in trouble with the supervisor. Jongdae shoots Jongin the bird where Junmyeon can’t see it, but Tao catches sight of the rude gesture from his cubicle, informs his boyfriend of it gleefully, and succeeds in getting Jongdae into even more trouble because of it.

That whole ordeal does nothing to erase Kyungsoo’s nickname from Jongdae’s vocabulary—though the social worker remains surprisingly cheerful and lacking in bitterness toward the straight laced law student—and in such a dynamic environment the allotted time for Minseok and Kyungsoo’s requirement passes far too quickly. 30 hours are fulfilled much faster than expected, and before any of the six are strictly ready for it, they’re already out for drinks again, only this time it’s to say goodbye.

“I kind of don’t want to go back to school,” Kyungsoo confides in Jongin over the pulse of the music playing from the lounge’s speakers.

“We’ll miss you guys,” Jongin agrees before taking a sip of his drink. “I don’t know where everyone else disappeared to, but if Junmyeon-hyung were here he’d say that you did good work.”

“I mean, that’s the whole point of pro bono,” Kyungsoo says absently, “isn’t it? Doing good work?”

Jongin considers this. “I suppose you’re right.” He drinks some of his alcohol again then wonders, “Did you enjoy it?”

Kyungsoo scoots a little nearer and tilts his head to the side like he doesn’t understand. “Enjoy the work?” he ventures teasingly. “Or something else?”

Jongin gulps visibly but doesn’t back away. “We went out for coffee almost every day,” he reminds the owl-eyed law student. “How about that?”

“Oh I’ll always appreciate free coffee,” he jokes. Jongin pouts; that isn’t exactly the response he was looking for. “But I liked it even better drinking it with you,” Kyungsoo concedes after a beat.”And drinking alcohol with you like this isn’t so bad either.”

Jongin’s answering smile is beatific and, as far Kyungsoo is concerned, it lights up the entire room.

Epilogue:

They go out on a real date after that—one where they actually consume real food—and Kyungsoo lets Jongin pay because the younger man asks sweetly “Please let me do this for you, Kyungsoo.”

One date becomes two and two becomes four, and it isn’t long before Jongin and Kyungsoo are happily dating. Strangely enough, Minseok and Jongdae fall into a relationship too, and it’s actually through Minseok that Jongdae and the rest of the social worker crew even find out about Jongin and Kyungsoo.

“I can’t believe you didn’t tell us!” Jongdae complains after informing Tao and Junmyeon that he only knew before they did because Minseok had just called to ask about a double date.

Jongin flushes in embarrassment but doesn’t seem even a little bit remorseful. Tao picks up on this and grins. “He’s that good, huh?”

“I don’t think I know what you mean by that,” Jongin responds smartly, “but Kyungsoo’s a good boyfriend, yes.”

“Polite to a fault, I bet,” Jongdae chortles.

Tao has a follow-up question so he refrains from joining in Jongdae’s laughter—even though he really wants to. “Have you had yet?”

“Zitao!” Junmyeon practically shrieks. “This is a professional space! Can you not?”

He’s quieted with a peck to his cheek but the supervisor still looks kind of put out when Jongin blushes and answers affirmatively.

“How was it?” Jongdae’s curious enough to ask.

Jongin’s as red as a tomato at this point, but he manages a squeaky “Really good, actually,” before surprising his coworkers by frowning abruptly. “He still made me say please, though.”

“Of course he did,” Tao laughs, especially since Junmyeon’s expression is decidedly grossed out.

Jongdae remarks a teasing “!” and gets an entire box of paper clips thrown at his face by Jongin. A few kisses from Tao prompt the supervisor into doing his part by adding a few extra cases to Jongdae’s workload for the week and Tao’s actually the one who gets to call Minseok up a few days later and say “Sorry, hyung, but it looks like your boyfriend’s going to have to rain check on that double date. He got himself in trouble again.”

“Seriously?” Minseok whines into the receiver.

Jongdae groans and bangs his head into his cubicle desk. Tao catches Jongin’s grin from across the office and schools his tone to sound appropriately apologetic instead of smug. He sighs. “Seriously.”