Nichkhun hadn’t had his coffee yet when Taecyeon walked in to his office that morning.

“So, how did it go?” Taecyeon seated himself on the chair in front of the table, greasily wiggling his eyebrows at Nichkhun. “You didn’t call me or answer my text. It must have gone well,” he assumed, looking proud of himself for setting up the date for Nichkhun. Nichkhun sighed heavily, closing his eyes, as well as the file in his hands and leaned back on his chair.

“Please, Taecyeon. I beg you. Don’t set up any more blind dates for me.” Nichkhun felt the familiar disappointment creeping in when last night’s unfortunate ending to his blind date came to his mind again.

“What? Why?” Taecyeon cocked his head to the side in question, eyebrows frowning like he didn’t understand why Nichkhun would preposterously want him to stop sending Nichkhun to blind dates (Taecyeon enjoyed being matchmaker too much). “Was he bad? Is he not your type? Was he a ert??”

“No,” Nichkhun said through greeted teeth, and then sighed again. “He was…lovely.”

“Then what’s the problem?”

“We were supposed to meet outside after dinner—,” Taecyeon gasped dramatically, but Nichkhun ignored him and continued “But he—.”

“Stood you up,” Taecyeon said in realization.

“Stood me up,” Nichkhun repeated after him, and nodded his head.

“Oh man.” Taecyeon look at Nichkhun in pity. “He didn’t say goodbye or anything? Didn’t even tell you it wasn’t working out between you both?”

“It’s even worse,” Nichkhun frowned. “I asked him if he wanted to get desserts somewhere else after dinner and he so very enthusiastically said yes, only to ditch me. Giving me false hope and all.”

“Damn. Well, I promise you next time will be better!”

“Taecccc,” Nichkhun dropped his head on the table. “Please. No more.”

“Really! I’ll find you a pretty one next time,” he decided on his own.

“It doesn’t matter if they’re pretty or not. If they don’t like me, then they don’t.”

“Hurry up!” Taecyeon dismissed what Nichkhun said, getting up from the chair and fixing his blazer. “Meeting is in,” he checked his watch and walked off to the door. “5 minutes! Everyone’s waiting for you.”

“Ugh fine,” Nichkhun got up as well. “But where’s my coffee?!”

“It’s here!” someone appeared at the door right after Taecyeon left, showing Nichkhun the cup of coffee in his hand with a sunshine smile on his face, eyes disappearing into half-moon shapes.

“Ah, Youngjae. Oh, Youngjae.” Nichkhun approached the younger guy and draped his arm around his shoulders as they walked to the conference room together. “My saviour.”

Youngjae only chuckled at his upper. “Hurry and drink your coffee, hyung. It’s gonna be a long discussion.”

“True,” Nichkhun agreed. They had just landed a new project and had so many things to cover, and even though Nichkhun still felt bad and disappointed about last night, he wasn’t going to let the mood ruin his work and day. He drank and swallowed the hot coffee, feeling the liquid scald his tongue a little but the sting made him more awake at the same time. “Good morning all. I hope everyone is ready for another round of endless researches, dealing with suppliers, sleepless nights and takeout foods.”

“Stop being so dramatic,” Taecyeon rolled his eyes. “We’ll finish this in, what, a week, right?” he jokingly asked the whole team and received voices of disapproval.

“Ambitious,” Nichkhun commented and took a seat on his chair on the farthest end of the long table. “I like that Manager Ok.”

“Oh, admit it. You just like me,” Taecyeon leered.

“Manager Ok, I would also like it if you’d stop being delusional,” Nichkhun deadpanned, gaining a burst of laughter from around the room. Nichkhun smiled and straightened his posture. “Shall we start the meeting?”

“I mean, where do we even find replacement to come up with the jingle in less than a week?” Fei panicked, her phone pressed in between her shoulder and ear as she hastily looked over the list in her hand. “There are still things to discuss and an agreement to sign, and we don’t have enough time for this! Damn, why is nobody picking up their phone??”

“Relax, Wang,” Taecyeon tried to calm her down.

“Yeah, take a seat first,” Nichkhun agreed. He pulled the chair next to his and patted his hand on it as a gesture for Fei to sit down. Fei did so in defeat, and slammed her phone on the table.

“Who would have guessed the composer would get writer’s block at such ungodly timing,” she spat. She took a deep breath in and out, and pinched the area in between her eyes. “Ah, I’m so annoyed.”

“Look, we’ll just go over the list again and find someone who’s up for the job,” Nichkhun suggested, referring to the list containing names of people who submitted their jingle demo for the new commercial. “I’m sure one of them would be happy and eager to take the position.”

“We’ve tried, Khun,” Fei said, exasperated. “And I just don’t get it. No one was free to take the project.”

“Now, that’s odd,” Taecyeon raised an eyebrow up. It was rare to see him all serious like this. Given the situation they’d been put into, even Nichkhun felt slightly unsettled and couldn’t help but feel something was off.

“Okay, real talk— it’s either someone is trying to sabotage us, or Just Right Cosmetics,” Nichkhun said.

“I think so, too,” Taecyeon chimed in. “But we have no time for this right now. It’s best we find producer for the jingle first.”

“My team are trying their best to coax one of these producers to help us,” Fei reported. “But I’m not sure if it would work out well.”

“We can’t just wait around like this,” Nichkhun tapped his fingers on the surface of the table, trying hard to think of a solution for this problem. It came in the form of Youngjae timidly knocking his hand on the pantry’s door, and a “I know a hyung who does music. Should I try asking him?”

“Youngjae-yaaa,” both Nichkhun and Taecyeon stood up and hugged the flustered Youngjae from his sides. “A true saviour.”

“I can try but can’t guarantee he’ll accept it…”

“That’s okay. The least we can do is try. Do you think you can arrange him to meet us as soon as possible?”

“I think I can,” Youngjae nodded. “I’ll call him now!” he announced, and went back to his table.

“I better make a new agreement,” Fei said.

“Yeah, you do that. Make it as fancy as possible. Increase the payment and royalty.”

“On it.” Fei left and only Nichkhun and Taecyeon stayed where they were.

“Don’t worry, I’ll charm my way into him and make him sign the agreement,” Taecyeon said.

“…Don’t be deluded, please.”

As it turned out, this hyung Youngjae knew and recommended—Im Jaebum— was new in the industry, young and eager to break into the scene. The two hours discussion went smoothly, mostly of them interviewing Jaebum to know him more personally, about his high ambitions and willingness to climb up to the top right from the bottom. Fei also briefed Jaebum about the commercial that they were going to start recording and air in less than two weeks, about how they needed the jingle to be done in a week time, and then explained the concept and what they were looking for, for the commercial. Jaebum then proceeded to show the three of them some music samples he’d been working on, and Nichkhun, as well as Taecyeon and Fei were impressed with the diversity in his work. It wasn’t long before they sign the agreement and Jaebum was to start working on the jingle immediately.

“Thank you again for this opportunity!” Jaebum bowed at them after walking them to the main entrance of the place. It was a two-storey condominium renovated into working area, specifically studios. Jaebum had his own recording studio, albeit just a small one. There seemed to be more studios in the place, separated in different rooms with personalized name board hanging on the doors.

Nichkhun shared an amused smile with Taecyeon and Fei, but feeling light and easy with relief now that they managed to avoid this crisis. “You should thank Youngjae and buy him meals,” Nichkhun smiled.

“Of course! Oh?” Jaebeum perked up at a certain direction behind Nichkhun. “Hyung,