8:30 AM
 

Resting his head on his desk, Jongin feels his soul leaving his body as he moves his mouse around and sloppily attaches a few documents to an email. He's already forgotten what's in them but he doesn't have the energy to care and he sends it before sitting up and playing with his hair in boredom. He has no idea why he's even at work this early, given that he managed to finish every single 1044 last night, but he assumes it's out of pure habit. Not that he minds it, though, since he'd rather sit at work and be blinded by the illusion of being productive than sit at home and dwell in unproductiveness. Spinning around in his chair as he waits for more tasks from his boss, Jongin eyes the workers walking back and forth as they walk to their cubicles before sighing childishly and swinging his legs back and forth. He can hear people talking about the office party and he's about to pick up his work phone and dial Baekhyun's number when, as if on cue, the redhead pops up out of nowhere, nearly scaring Jongin senseless.

"Nothing to do, I see?" Baekhyun snickers before leaning against the wall. He soon shrugs before pointing to himself. "Join the club." He walks over to Jongin's red couch and flops down as if he owned the place, spreading himself out and ignoring Jongin's wails of protest. "You fell asleep on my desk last week, remember?" he murmurs, lifting his head a little. "I convinced Luhan to go, so it looks like all of us are going after all!" He smiles excitedly, waving at Taemin when the latter walks past. Jongin doesn't bother.

Jongin simply hums in response before facing the ceiling. For some reason, he woke up feeling extra fancy, so he decided to break out and iron his tie for the first time in a long time. He's practically forgotten how to tie it and he's pretty sure it's hanging half-assedly around his neck, but he can't bring himself to care as he exhales slowly. "Why're you even here? You're practically finished with this entire week's work," he mumbles, covering his face and yawning. He knows it's barely been 24 hours, but he still finds him refreshing his inbox every three minutes in hopes of receiving a letter of approval from his university. After quietly stepping out and looking around, only to see his boss nowhere in sight, Jongin pulls out his private phone before scrolling through his Facebook. 

"Felt like it, and just so I could bless you with my pretty face," Baekhyun says smugly, blowing a kiss at Jongin, who shrieks. "Had to talk to Minseok about something, he accidentally got someone's email adress incorrect and needed help to find the right one." He stretches before looking up when the elevator doors open, and smiles widely subsequently.  "Hey! You're early!"

Jongin looks up and nearly falls right off his chair when he sees Sehun standing outside his cubicle, coat on and collar turned upwards and accentuating his cheekbones. His hair is a little damp from the drizzle outside but his face looks absolutely flawless. "What--" He immediately shuts his mouth before he has a chance to utter something embarrassing. "I...h-hi." He unconsciously reaches up and fixes his hair. 

"Morning," Sehun says, and he sounds way too energetic at this hour. He runs a hand through his hair before adjusting the strap on his bag. Even though he's standing underneath the harsh, artificial lights, he still manages to look absolutely angellic. After nodding at Baekhyun, he smiles a little when he looks at Jongin. "How'd everything go last night?" he asks, a certain warmth in his eyes. "With the papers, that is."

It takes Jongin five seconds to process Sehun's words and when he does, he nearly chokes on air. "Uh. Oh, yeah, that--" He scratches the back of his head. "It went fine, I finished e-everything like I was s-supposed to," he says, sending Sehun his best smile, instantly regretting it since he figures he probably looks like a serial killer. Except Sehun immediately smiles back, and Jongin suddenly feels like he's going to faint, and he swallows when he realizes that it's the feeling again. He feels his chest grow hot as he continues to look at Sehun, and nearly feels relieved when the latter looks away and at Baekhyun when the latter speaks.

"We were talking about the office party," Baekhyun says happily, crossing his legs on the couch. "Me, Jongin and Luhan are going, are you and Chanyeol?" 

Sehun seems to contemplate the question before shrugging politely. "We'll have to see what happens, but I'd love to go," he says and it's not until they hear their boss' loud voice that he mutters a quick apology before heading to his cubicle. Despite the sounds surrounding them, Jongin hears him rummaging around in his cubicle before it goes silent.

Baekhyun claps and rubs his hands together. "Well, well," he says, clearly happy with himself, as he looks at Jongin. "Looks like that's solved...kinda, at least. Hey, do you th-" He cuts himself off when he sees the dazed look on the brunet's face. "Hey, are you...what are you-- Are you sick-- Wait, you looked the same yesterday when--" He blinks. "Sehun...talked...to...y--" He suddenly flies off the couch and his mouth flies open in surprise. "Wait...are you in love with Se-" His sentence ends in a muffled shout when Jongin zooms over and nearly smacks his lips off his face in panic.

"Shut up, shut up," Jongin whisper-yells, gaze wild as he prays Sehun doesn't walk over (or hear, for that matter). He keeps Baekhyun in an iron grip until the latter his palm, which makes him drop the redhead before rushing towards his desk. "What's wrong with you," he croak-garbles, grabbing a bottle of hand sanitizer with shaking hands, applying nearly half the bottle on his hands and rubbing them together. When he's done, he runs a hand through his hair, feeling his heart race as frighteningly quick as it did yesterday. He slowly sinks back in his chair, feeling absolutely no willpower to return to (his non-existing) work as he lets his head race. "Can you stop staring at me like th-"

"But, is it true, though?" Baekhyun asks, voice quiet as he walks closer to Jongin. "C'mon, you can tell me, I mean, I'll find out anyway since you're super bad at hiding your feelings, but still, tell me, I deserve it since you've stolen my lunch nearly every week this mo-" He moves aside and saves his eyes from being poked out of their sockets when Jongin suddenly throws his hands in the air.

"Yeah, okay? Fine, you're kind of right," Jongin huffs quietly before crossing his arms over his chest, ignoring Baekhyun's excited squeal. "And by the way, how am I supposed to know? I only started feeling like this recently, you can't just assume it's love or whatever, that's stupid." He figures his face is probably tomato red at this point, especially when he hears Sehun cheerfully greeting a colleague in the hallway. "But please, don't tell anyone." He bites his lip, grabbing a new Post-it note and proceeding to doodle cartoon dogs on it in an attempt to distract himself. It doesn't work, and he swallows thickly. "Great. Just great--"

"My lips are sealed," Baekhyun says, zipping his lips and throwing the key away, but even Jongin knows that promise will only last a maximum of ten minutes. He roams around Jongin's cubicle in boredom, touching every plant and wall until he's standing by the latter's desk. "How on Earth did you manage to sign 600 1044's in like, two hours?" he asks, eyes wide in surprise.

Jongin shrugs, not even bothering to lift his head as he mindlessly rocks back and forth on his chair. "I just did," he hums, grabbing the edge of his desk and pulling himself until he's behind it, and nearly rolls over Baekhyun's foot in the process. He opens up Safari and enters the URL for one of his favorite gaming sites, except he scrambles to exit out of it when he hears his boss heels approaching. The next thing he knows, her strong, grandma-like perfume fills his entire cubicle and Jongin flinches when she drops a ten inch thick stack of papers on his desk. She mentions something about him looking through them before hastily leaving the room. Jongin curses her to eternity before sneaking a glance at the papers with the full intention of not checking them out.

"That was close," Baekhyun says in relief as he pops up from behind the couch. He walks over to Jongin and inspects the bunch of papers, although something quickly catches his eye and he furrows his eyebrows. "Hey, isn't this for Sehun?" he asks in confusion, picking up a few papers and flipping through them. He snickers under his breath. "What an idiot, man, these are for Sehun."

Raising an eyebrow, Jongin grabs a paper of his own, only to blink in confusion because Baekhyun is indeed right; at the bottom of each paper is a signature line, with Oh Sehun clearly printed underneath it, and Jongin sighs in annoyance. "She really must be losing her marbles," he says, not even bothering to keep quiet as he rubs his face. "Wait, what does that me-"

"You, my friend, are gonna walk ten steps to Sehun's cubicle and return them," Baekhyun says with a grin, only sighing when Jongin visibly stills. "Are you serious? Come on, it'll be fine, I promise, what's the worst that could--"

"Maybe he'll think I took them by accident and think I'm weird," Jongin babbles, feeling his heart race all over again as he contemplates the endless possibilities of outcomes walking into Sehun's cubicle could lead to. Now that he thinks about it, he's never actually been inside Sehun's cubicle, he's only ever stood outside, and he swallows for the nth time before biting his lip. On the other hand, he figures doing this is better than having his boss yell at him later for not having returned them like he was supposed to, so he ignores the fluttering feeling in his stomach before standing up. He's surprised his legs don't give in as he walks over to his desk and picks up the stack of paper. He doesn't say a word to Baekhyun as he slowly leaves the cubicle and enters the hallway.

Jongin ends up standing outside Sehun's cubicle, out of view, for an unnecessarily long time before he bites his lip and stands by the opening. Sehun's perfume hits him like a train and Jongin nearly drops the papers all over the floor in surprise, eyes trailing over Sehun's broad torso as the latter types away at his keyboard. It sounds nearly melodic and Jongin nearly turns around and walks back in fear of interrupting and annoying the blond, but his legs refuse to move, so he curses himself as he peeks inside the cubicle. It looks just like usual, except this time, Sehun has placed his thermos on the right side of the desk instead of the left, and his coat is neatly hung on his coat hanger instead of being slung across the back of his chair. Jongin feels his heart pounding and he hopes he doesn't end up breaking into a sweat as he raises his fist and softly knocks on the wall. Sehun doesn't even move, so Jongin knocks a little bit harder, only for Sehun to completely ignore him again. Swallowing, Jongin takes it as his cue to leave, and he's about to turn around and walk back to his cubicle when Sehun spins around in his chair.

"I thought I heard someone knocking," Sehun chuckles. His long legs are crossed as usual and his sleeves are rolled up. "Sorry about that," he says, eyes immediately softening when he looks at the brunet, who is standing like a statue in the opening. "Did...you have anything in mind?" he asks after a full minute of silence.

Mentally slapping himself in the face, Jongin scrambles to hold up the stack of papers, nearly dropping it in the process. "Uh, yeah, wait, here, I...brought, uh, my papers-- Except they're not mine, I mean, she thought they were mine and she handed them to me but they're actually yours so I'll, I mean, I'm giving them back to you--" He clears his throat and bites his lip, cursing when he feels his stomach coiling. "Where...I, uh, where should I--"

"I'll take them," Sehun says in a friendly tone before standing up and walking over to the brunet, the papers nearly falling out of the latter's hands as he hands them over. "Thank you." He sends Jongin a warm smile before he averts his gaze slightly. "I don't think you've worn a tie in a while, have you?" he asks, nodding at Jongin.

For a second, Jongin forgets he's ever wearing a tie, and he reaches up and unconsciously tugs on it as shakes his head frantically. "N-no, I haven't," he says dumbly, only to blush furiously. "I'm n-not very good a--"

"Not to be rude or anything, but you can tell," Sehun laughs but there's no bite in his voice. He eyes Jongin's tie, which is so loose it looks like it might come clean off with one swift tug, before smiling. "May I?"

Jongin blinks. "What do you--" He nearly screams when Sehun suddenly stands behind him before reaching out and proceeding to tie his tie for him. It's clear that Sehun is trying to be as gentle as possibly, and Jongin assumes that Sehun knows what it's like to tie a tie to the point of suffocation. He keeps his mouth closed, hoping Sehun won't see how much he's trembling in an attempt to keep still as the taller's nifty fingers easily untie Jongin's tie before effortlessly tying it correctly. Sehun is so close that Jongin can hear the former's clock ticking in his ear as he hums to himself. 

Whilst Sehun works his magic, Jongin lets his eyes roam around the cubicle. His gaze quickly lands on the photos on Sehun's table, and he smiles slightly when he sees a small, white dog on one photo, but it's not until he averts his gaze and sees a young woman that he blinks and swallows. He stares at her pretty, mature face and long, shiny black hair and perfect makeup, mind racing as he tries to make sense of it. 

He soon does, and Jongin finds himself scurrying out of the room with a quick thanks when Sehun steps back and tells him he's finished. Jongin rushes back to his cubicle, wholeheartedly expecting Baekhyun to still be there, which the latter is, and Jongin collapses onto his chair. His head is spinning and he desperately needs something to focus on, so he reaches into his bag and pulls out a pack of gum, only shoving Baekhyun off when the latter attempts to steal some. The strong mint flavor instantly calms him down, much to Jongin's relief, and he sighs before burying his face in his hands. His boss soon walks in and, for the first time in his life, he's utterly relieved to see her as she appears and hands him a stack of papers thicker than a dictionary. She proceeds to shoo Baekhyun out before scolding him and sending him back to his own cubicle, and Jongin sits back at his desk and picks up a pen. He begins flipping through the papers, but he's only able to get through one before his stomach coils uncomfortably. Figuring he's probably just hungry, Jongin looks at the clock on the wall, only to scream internally when he realizes that his break doesn't start for another 2 hours. With an audible groan, which soon earns him a scolding, he rests his head on top of the stack of papers before sighing.