love pieces

Jongin hummed quietly to himself and tapped away happily on his keyboard. He loved editing articles because he felt like he gets to put a bit of his own touch in it, that's as much as he'll ever get to do anyways. 

The rest of the office was pretty much cleared out by now, all the other employees had left to go out for drinks, including Baekhyun. Jongin had narrowly avoided him by hiding in the bathroom. The poor guy looked all over for Jongin and was the last one to leave for the bar. Jongin felt kind of bad, but he had no interest in going out, drinking, and socialising. 

Jongin was sipping on some water, giving a final run through the article, when he heard a ding come from the elevator. Jongin felt anxiety rise in him and he prayed it wasn't Baekhyun coming back to fetch him. 

And it wasn't. Instead, Jongin heard a loud, boisterous voice that sounded very familiar-

"Ah, Jongin-ah! You're here?" Jongin turned to his side and saw that man from Mister Oh's office. Chan... Yeol?

"Yes, sir!" Jongin squeaked out and quickly bowed to him. Though Chanyeol had never really been introduced to the employees and Jongin wasn't really sure what he did in the office, he knew Chanyeol must be someone important if he can talk to Mister Oh in a casual manner.

"Hm? Sir? No, that's too much! There's no need to talk formally with me!" Chanyeol came closer and patting his large hand on Jongin's shoulder. Is he just being humble? If he's anywhere near Mister Oh's level, he must be addressed formally.

"What are you working on there?" Chanyeol removed his hand from Jongin's shoulder and moved closer to the laptop, just to get a better look at the screen.

"J-Just some editing." Jongin mumbled, hastily pushing up his glasses. He felt exteremly nervous with Chanyeol inspecting his things, what if Mister Oh sent him here to fire him? Or at least find a slip up!

"Looks good." He grinned, at least he looked a little pleased? 

"By the way, why are you the only one here? Where is everyone?" Jongin himself was a little shocked at Chanyeol's words. He thought there were a few other employees as well. But when he goes on his tippy toes to glance around the cubicles he notices that everyone else has indeed left. 

He comes back down on his heels before responding, "They've gone for drinks."

"First day celebrations..." Chanyeol chuckled, almost like first day celebrations were a nostalgic memory for him. He continued with raise eyebrows, "I guess you're not a fan of drinking?" Jongin smiled sheepishly and shook his head, his brown hair fluttering.

"How about we go out for coffee instead? You should still celebrate your first day!" Chanyeol smiled widely, but Jongin felt that it wasn't completely... Real. Jongin had always felt like he had a good second sense for... Bad things. He suddenly was getting one of those feelings from Chanyeol, which threw him off guard a bit because Jongin had never felt this vibe from the tall man before. However, Jongin knew that something wasn't right, it'd be in his best interest to not leave this building alone with Chanyeol.

"I'll have to decline... I have a lot of work." Jongin said quietly, giving a small smile at the end; he hoped Chanyeol would drop it, he wasn't good at saying 'no'.

"Oh c'mon, it's the first day! How about we just drink some instant coffee in the cafeteria?" There was a flash of disapointment in Chanyeol eyes, before he perked up like a puppy. Jongin was hesitant, but he figured that as long as they were in the building, he should be okay. He was probably just overacting, Chanyeol's not a bad guy.

Alas, Jongin sighed a nodded his head, accepting the invitaton. Jongin was really bad at saying 'No". Remembering his infirm personality, Jongin couldn't help but think back to his first interview with Mister Oh. Jongin felt resentment towards the harsh words he had said about his character, he wanted to hate him for those words.  Mister Oh had told him to stop being weak, if only it were that easy.

/-/

Jongin softly ran his finger around the rim of his cup of jasmine tea. Chanyeol sat across with him with his coffee, Jongin didn't really like coffee.

The cafeteria was empty and it made Jongin feel weird, remembering how it was packed only a few hours ago. Jongin and Chanyeol had just taken a seat, after making their tea and coffee. Actually, Jongin didn't make anything, Chanyeol offered to brew the tea for him. It was just instant tea, but it didn't stop Jongin from feeling guilty for doubting Chanyeol's intentions.

"How was your first day Jongin? Hope you weren't took packed with work?" Chanyeol said in a teasing tone, looking at Jongin over the rim of his cup. Jongin knew he was poking fun at him, no one really got a lot of work on the first day. But Jongin liked to work hard, so he always did above and beyond. It added a little bit to his non existent self esteem.

Jongin felt a little embarassed at Chanyeol's words and but managed to shrug in response, in quiet tone he asked,"What about you?"

Chanyeol let out a small chuckle, that sounded almost bitter, will looking down at the table. "I just followed Sehun around, I managed to tick him off a lot today. I didn't really have work for today." But when the man made eye contact with Jongin, his expression wasn't dark at all and in fact looked rather cheerful.

Jongin furrowed his eyebrows at the ambiguity of the situation, he still didn't know what Chanyeol did at the company, but he decided not to prod.

"Oh." He whispered, while taking a few more sips of his tea. He feared he was getting boring, yet at the same time he wasn't sure what else he should say. He didn't even know if he wanted to become "friends" with Chanyeol, a man who has connections with Mister Oh.

"You're not much of a talker, are you?" Chanyeol giggled, which was quite a sight on the rather manly looking person. Jongin sighed, and shook his head. Jongin actually had a very playful and talkative personality, it just disappear