Jihoon woke up the next morning.

Jihoon stared at his clock. Hm, an hour after he usually wakes up.

.

. He’s late he’s late . He threw off his comforter and swung his body out of bed and into the shower for the quickest bath he’s ever had, then throws on a random white shirt and pair of pants. He runs out of the house, puts on his shoes and digs his bag for his keys but he left them on his dresser. So he throws off his shoes, runs back in for the keys, runs back out, and then struggles to put his shoes back on.

When he finally gets to the office, oh, that’s where the real horror awaits. He walked through the doors, ready for the day to get better contrary to its ty start.

The moment he stepped in, however, all eyes turned to him. Jihoon stopped at the door, self-conscious under the heated stares. He tugged at his shirt and ran his hand through his hair, making a bee line toward his desk.

“Hey, do I have something on my face? Why is everyone looking at me like that?” He leans to the right and whispers over to Soonyoung. It was then he realised, that Soonyoung seemed to be avoiding making eye contact. Suspicious.

“U-uhm Jihoon, I uh, you know w-winning isn’t everything in life, right? Like, you don’t always have to be first place to have good things in life, y-you know that right?” He was a bumbling mess, hands retracted in front of him, fingers playing with each other.

“Uh, yes I do know that. But just so you know, that doesn’t apply to everything. Why are you being so jittery? Put your hands down, people are going to think I’m bulling you.” Jihoon reached forward to pull his friends hands back down, but Soonyoung’s hand was now pointing to something behind him. Jihoon’s eyebrows knotted together in confusion as he turned around to look at what his friend was pointing at, and maybe the source of his radiating nervousness.

Oh. Oh no. Oh no no no.

It felt like his world had just crashed down on him. Like everything he worked for was for naught. Like he was being punished by the high heavens for tarnishing his attendance and punctuality record because Jihoon was never late, he trusted his alarms, but apparently that trust was taken for granted and he now had ‘buy a new alarm clock’ on his to-do list.

But this was worse than being tardy for once.

What Soonyoung pointed at, was the revenue board. The holy board where all the consultants wrote down their revenues for the period, where everyone could see how much dough you’ve brought home for the company. It was also the revenue board that Jihoon was in the lead of.

UNTIL NOW.

The words:

Lee Jihoon                           $36,107

Boo Seungkwan                  $39,477

rendered him speechless.

How. When. What. WHY.

His jaw dropped open at the sight. How did he fall to SECOND place IN A DAY. Not even a day, last time he checked, he was still FIRST. BUT NOW HE’S NOT. His breathing got a little heavier, eyes a little less focused, heart beating a little faster. He’s got 3 weeks. 3 WEEKS till the end of period AND THIS HAPPENS?? Jihoon whipped his chair back to face his friend, who looked like he was about to have a nervous breakdown.

“S-soonyoung. Tell me I’m seeing it wrong. Tell me I’m still first on the board.” Jihoon had his head cradled in the embrace of his palms now, unbelieving of the clear situation. He feels a warm had settle on his shoulder before sighing out a real big sigh because how couldn’t he?

“D-don’t worry Jihoon. It’s just that, Seungkwan placed a high positioned candidate this morning a-and that’s kinda…why…” He trailed off, not wanting to say anymore in fear of triggering a reaction from his friend. “But hey, on the bright side, you still have 3 more weeks to show him who’s the real winner. And even if you don’t, you know you’ll always be a winner in my eyes.”

Jihoon lifted his head, just to send his friend a look that was a mix of confusion and mild anger.

-

After some (read: a lot) comforting, Jihoon was back to being functional. Kinda functional, at least. He was still doing a little moping, but decided that maybe a coffee would jump start his engines for work. He waddled over to the pantry and made himself a nice hot cup of coffee, before waddling back to his desk, placing the mug carelessly close to his arm.

You and I and probably Soonyoung know where this is going. As he was busy typing on the keyboard and making phone calls, he made an uncalculated swipe of his left arm to grab some papers from the rack on his desk when his cup of comfort slides off the table in slow motion.

Half the coffee ends up