The break room is busy like always when Zhangjing walks inside. The interns gather like flies around the coffee machine to gossip. The corners of Zhangjing’s lips curl into a smile as he silently steps over to the fridge to grab his lunch. “I’m telling you, their purpose is to make my life a living hell,” Linkai leans back against the counter, totally ignoring the mug in his hands in favor of complaining about his superiors. Chencheng ignores him in favor of topping off the pretzel pyramid he was building with Linong. The later is a bit more kind, offering the shorter man a sympathetic smile. Zhangjing seats himself as Linong shrugs his shoulders. It was an unspoken rule around the office that the interns weren’t allowed to use the tables on their breaks. They wouldn’t get in trouble per say if they used them, but those in charge of them would definitely assign them with a difficult task if they were caught.

“You know, when I first started working here, I thought that Yueyue was nice. I think Bufan pressured him into bullying me with him. They’re awful, I swear to god. I have to hide in the bathroom in order to get a break around here.” Linkai scoffs and finally takes a break from talking to take a sip from his lukewarm coffee. Grimacing, the man decides to set the mug down on the table. Oh well, he didn’t really come here for coffee anyway. “I don’t know,” Linong looks up from the counter to grab an orange sitting by the sink, “Kunkun and I get along pretty well.” The men beside him widen their eyes. Linkai guffaws, almost knocking his mug down in the process. Trying (barely) to hold back his laughter, Chengcheng’s eyes fill with mirth. “Did you really just call Cai Xukun ‘Kunkun’?” the man asks, raising a judgmental eyebrow. Meanwhile, Zhangjing is chewing his carrots quietly, trying not to seem like he’s incredibly invested in this conversation. “The only reason you two get along is because you have a big fat crush on him. Xukun could legit order you to go deep-sea diving because he’s craving fish and you’d do it for him,” Linkai rolls his eyes, but smirks when he sees Linong blushing.

“No! It’s not that! I just really think he’s a good worker and he’s nice and will buy me lunch sometimes and he makes sure he doesn’t leave too much work for me to-“ Linong is cut off by Linkai, who is flicking Chengcheng’s head for hogging the pretzels. “Relax ‘Nongnong’. I was just joking. The fact that you’re getting so defensive makes me think that there’s some truth to what I said.” Linong destroys his and Chengcheng’s creation in his flustered attempt at denying everything “No! I swear I don’t have a crush on him! I just think-“ Just then, Yanjun stalks into the room with Ziyi and Chaoze at his side. Zhangjing, happy to be around people his age, waves them over with a bright smile on his lips. Yanjun and Chaoze sit down; however, Ziyi walks over to watch something on Linkai’s cellphone.

Chaoze leans back in his chair and closes his eyes, placing his hands behind his head. “Someone needs to turn down the temperature, it’s making me all hot and sweaty,“ he speaks absentmindedly, tugging at the collar of his shirt and kicking his feet up on the table. Zhangjing scrunches up his nose, of course, because they all eat there. Yanjun, however, has a different reaction. “I know what else can make you hot and sweaty,“ he responds, a -eating grin forming on his face. Both Chaoze and Zhangjing gag, the former looking ready to punch Yanjun in the face. Of course, they expected Yanjun to flirt at this point, but that didn’t make it any less disgusting.

“Yanjun, you don’t really expect your flirting to work on anyone, do you? No one would fall for that,” Zhangjing teases before popping a grape into his mouth. Before Yanjun has time for a retort, Mr. Zhang walks in, sighing when he sees everyone, “Is this why it seems so quiet out there? Why does everyone take their breaks at once? All you guys want to do is socialize. I swear I should make a limit to how many people can be in here at once...” The boss shakes his head and mumbles to himself before leaving.

Feeling a bit guilty, Zhangjing decides to finish up his lunch quickly. Mr. Zhang could get a bit scary when he was grumpy or disappointed in his employees. Too focused on his food, Zhangjing didn’t notice the thoughtful look Yanjun directed at him. A smirk tugged at the corner of the younger man’s mouth as he stood up and stretched. “Zhangjing, walk back to my desk with me, I have some documents I want to go over with you,” Yanjun pulled Zhangjing’s chair back so that he was forced away from the table. “But I haven’t finished eating yet,” Zhangjing protested, a pout forming on his lips. “I’ll take you out after work or something,” Yanjun offered, which seemed to be reasonable enough for the older man. As the two walked out to their neighboring cubicles, Yanjun placed a hand on the small of Zhangjing’s back. Of course, that behavior wasn’t too unusual for Yanjun, but Zhangjing had a feeling something was up…