Okay so maybe the twelfth floor wasn’t the worst place in the world to be relocated to.

You had an office. A real one with the door and was that a window? Sure, outside of this quiet little room was your certain demise but in here the air was clean, you had a window that shone actual sunlight over your shoulders as you worked at your desk and perhaps the most pleasant thing about this office was the silence. There was no typing. There was a quiet little phone that sat on the desk that hadn’t rung once since you’d stepped foot through the doorway and when you picked it up to listen for a dial tone to make sure it was a real working phone, it was.

Up here was different. Up here had its own executive color despite the fact that the plaque on the door was handwritten. A hastily scribbled ‘1234- Translator EXO’  [Artist Name: Oh Sehun, Medium: black sharpie on white paper]. You wondered if you could order a more permanent sign to affix to the door of your very own office (first you’d ever had that was all your own.) A permanent employee with a small raise in your salary and benefits. Prior to this, you had ever only known contract jobs. Your pay was contingent on the jobs you accepted and worked but now...now you were sitting in your office chair spinning a lazy circle behind your desk catching the view of the window with a clear blue sky and then the view of the inside of your office door, again and again, without a single thing to do. And you were being paid for this. Paid to wait for them to come to you.

The whole thing made you feel positively itchy. You had to get up and go look for work; this was ridiculous.

You started with the staff; content and social media managers and scriptwriters for planned appearances. It seemed your arrival on staff had gone relatively unnoticed and many of the staff were pleased to learn that they now had your translation skills at their immediate disposal. You were given a couple of names and sent on your way to go talk to them.

News of your arrival traveled quickly to the staff members and you were approached nearly instantly with a stack of materials that would have normally been sent down to the team on the fourth floor. The gravity of this new and unexpected occupational change hit you all of a sudden. This would be your responsibility now. The accuracy of the translations and the quick turn around that was required of you would be substantial. This was EXO. This was the global super mega group that had taken your world by storm all those years and ago and now you would be playing a vital role in their international promotions and activities. It was a lot to take in. It would be a ton of work, now that you were actually thinking about it and you wondered if you would be glued to your desk for the rest of your life as you eyed the stacks and stacks of documents that sat there and seemed to be growing by the hour as new tasks arrived.

Inside your computer, was worse. You had been cc’ed and bcc’ed on countless chains of emails from people for whose names you did not have a face to attach and you pulled your chair in closer to the screen, kicked your heels off under the desk, buried your face in front of the screen and began with the emails first.

There was a groove to it; to the work. You cleared text blocks; signed off on translations, cleared messages with your seal of approval; fixed grammar and punctuation and breezed through the easiest requests first; the stuff in English was easy enough for you to clear nearly half of your inbox within the first hour and you found yourself halfway through the documents for the upcoming Japanese promotions when your bladder protested enough to make you get up from behind this desk for your first break in who knows how long.

It was late afternoon time when you finally glanced at the time on your phone. Had you really worked straight through lunch without even noticing? When you stood up and reached below the desk with wandering toes to find your shoes, your felt just a little bit numb from sitting for so long and you considered perhaps a trek down twelve flights of stairs to loosen up your muscles.

Your office door had been closed while you worked. You had been so engrossed in the tasks that you paid attention to little else, but as you reached for your doorknob it occurred you; you had been so busy with the work that you hadn’t thought about anything else. You hadn’t thought about Sehun and his pushy, meddlesome antics. You hadn’t thought about lunch or about coffee or about the loose bra strap that kept sliding off your shoulder as you stood here facing your realizations.

You hadn't thought about him. Even as you translated, even as you saw the names on the pages and the occasional image of EXO with his face with those big brown eyes amongst the group, you had just kept working and working, knowing you had approaching deadlines and high expectations to meet and the drive of the job pushed you through it with such a force that you hadn’t even noticed the numbing of that pain in your heart. You hadn’t even noticed that longing that faded to the background.

Was this how he did it?

Was this how he forgot you so easily and could bring himself to make that phone call that night to break up with you? Did he just work through it all until it was gone and you were just an echo of a love that blew away like loose trash in the wind?

Your timing had been impeccable. You should have just taken the stairs. All twelve flights of them.

When the elevator opened and you stepped inside you heard a clamor of voices from down the hall and one voice in particular called your name. It was Sehun and you moved into waiting elevator box without even a glance in the direction of his voice. You would just pretend like you hadn’t heard him. Maybe you were distracted or maybe you were deaf, who cares, you merely turned around and faced the front, reaching a hand out to press the button to close the doors three times in succession. You had nearly made it out when the stupid doors changed direction and a huffing and smiling Oh Sehun caught your eyes with his own overly friendly ones.

He was stepping inside the elevator, standing closer than necessary and he wasn't alone. You gave a friendly head nod and smile to each member of EXO that was with him. It wasn’t the entire group. Just Junmeyon, Jongdae, and Minseok stepping inside behind him and you glanced around as your nerves swelled inside your belly. You were powerless against them and Sehun had his hand extended against the button panel of the elevator, with an index holding the button to keep the doors open as he waited for a few other staff members to get in.

“I’ll just wait for the other one,” a hushed voice murmured, just out of your line of sight and you dropped your eyes to your feet as that voice sank hard against your chest. You crossed your arms over your chest and stared down at the tips of your shoes, pressing your toes hard into the soles again and again inside your shoes. You focused on the feeling of the floor below your feet. You focused on the warmth of Sehun’s arm against your own and you kept your eyes down as held the breath inside your lungs until it began to burn and every cell in your body longed for fresh oxygen.

“There’s plenty of room in here, Kyungsoo.” Sehun lunged forward and you inhaled a slow and steady breath of air with your eyes still stubbornly focused down at your feet. From your peripheral vision, you saw the taller man grip the arm of the shorter and he pulled as the crowd parted and made room.

Kyungsoo did not look at you. You were certain because try as you might, your eyes couldn’t help but touch along his beautiful profile until he disappeared and you heard the shift of bodies behind you. Sehun wrapped an arm lightly around your shoulders and you were nudged into two small steps toward the front of the elevator and finally, the doors closed.

You felt a buzz. It was a vibration originating somewhere inside of you, probably nervous in nature. You rocked on the balls of your feet, shifting your weight back and forth twice to try and settle your skin. You slipped a hand up to your shoulder to put the strap of your bra back in place from where it had, again, fallen out of place and you wondered when you would be able to hide away to adjust the annoying thing.

The buzz in your skin was itchy now. You really should have taken the stairs. You shouldn’t be standing here next to a tall and warm Sehun inside this elevator that felt silent as a tomb with Kyungsoo standing somewhere behind you, anywhere behind you and you weren’t even allowed to turn and look.

How many rules would you break if you turned your head just once to look? Was he directly behind you or was he somewhere off to the side, staring daggers into the back of your head. Maybe that’s was why you felt so damn unsettled.

The tingling in your skin stopped in an instant when someone from behind touched you. Your entire body froze and you lifted your head from where it had fallen to stare down at your feet when you felt that touch.

Someone’s soft rounded fingertips had reached for the sliding adjuster of that pesky bra strap and pulled it up to tighten it. Someone, silently and discretely, released the now perfectly tightened strap and pushed it with soft fingers so it sat below the fabric of your shirt; concealed on your shoulder and in a much more comfortable position than before. And before the hands left, you felt the slow pass those hands made over the fabric as warm digits lingered and slipped down, over your shoulder blade, smoothing any imaginary wrinkles in the fabric your clothing might have.

The intimacy of the action left you stunned. The familiarity of those warm hands, here in such close proximity to so many potential witnesses, was obvious. The touch was glaringly familiar in a debilitating way that set off an ache deep inside of your chest.

And then the hands, the hands that you knew even without looking, those hands, they just left you.

Just as silently and discretely as they had arrived, they left and your chest felt tight. Your throat constricted every time you tried to swallow the wetness inside your mouth and the pull to know the truth was much too strong for you to fight.

You had to look. You just had to turn your head just a bit to look into the face of the person who stood directly behind you and just touched you in that way, as if it had any possibility of being anyone but him. Yet, foolishly, in the fraction of a second, before you looked, you hoped and you prayed that it would be just a stylist. Just one of the women from the wardrobe team who often adjusted the clothing and accessories of the people around her out of impulsive habit that persisted because of her job.

As you turned, you could make out the faces of the other people in this elevator. Two women in the back both looking down at their phones too engrossed in whatever was happening on their screens to pay you any attention. Minseok and Junmyeon who discussed something amongst themselves in hushed voices and beside them, directly behind you, you caught his eyes that caught your movement and he watched you when you watched him; his face was blank and impassive despite the color you saw in his cheeks that turned his face a shade rosier.

“Did you have lunch?” Kyungsoo’s lips had not moved and the question was definitely spoken using Sehun’s voice. He was standing so close to you that you had to look up into his face to answer. You had to let go of Kyungsoo’s dark brown eyes that followed where your focus moved and you looked into Sehun’s face to process the casual question he had just asked you.

“Oh...umm, yeah. I did.” You lied on instinct. You weren’t sure why you would lie to Sehun, but the answer was already out, despite the warm flush you felt in your cheeks from it. You turned your focus to the front with a quick snap of your head before the man behind you could read the signs of dishonesty on your face and the elevator doors were opening the ground level. Bodies were exiting all around you, yet the two men who had captivated your attention lingered where you did. Walked along beside where you walked and you felt that whatever conversation Sehun had started wasn't yet over.

“I was wondering if I could stop by your office later. I’ve got a few things I wanted to ask,” Sehun took slow steps as he spoke to you and your ears focused on the sounds of Kyungsoo’s steps behind you. He wasn’t talking, and he wasn’t involved in the things Sehun was saying, yet he wasn’t leaving either and you figured they must be traveling together.  

“Oh, I’m really swamped with work right now, Sehun, I don't know if I’ll have time for anything else, really.” The casual way you used his name slipped and you had a weird misplaced taste on your tongue that tasted a lot like guilt. But for what? What reason could you possibly have to keep Sehun at a chaste and professional arm’s length? He was a friend, after all, right? You could address Sehun in a casual way when you spoke with him, right? Just because you’d taken a strictly professional approach with certain other members didn’t mean you were doing anything wrong here.

“Ahh, it’ll only take a moment though.” Sehun persisted with a slight whine on his voice at the possibility of you being too busy to address whatever it was he had to ask of you.

“If it’s so quick why don’t you just ask her now,” Kyungsoo’s gruff tone made Sehun jump a tiny bit; just enough to tell you that he hadn’t quite expected Kyungsoo to be participating in the conversation he was having with you.

“Ahh, that’s a bit, it’s kind of-” Sehun grimaced and rubbed lightly over the back of his neck, his gaze bouncing from Kyungsoo's face to yours a few more times and you felt a little bad for him. You hadn’t really meant to put him on the spot like this and you definitely didn’t like the weird tension you felt building as Kyungsoo looked at him with his hands crossed firmly over his chest and that glare on his eyeballs directed at the taller, younger man.

“I’m sure it’s fine, Sehun. You can come by anytime and as long as I’m still alive I’ll help you out with whatever you need. Maybe you can come right before I leave, around 6 today?” You had to calm whatever this tension was and you could see the sag in Sehun's shoulders as he exhaled a breath and nodded his head with a smile.

There was no such expression of relief on Kyungsoo's face and before you could dwell on any of that nonsense, you were again reminded of the reason you’d taken the elevator instead of the stairs; you really had to pee and the restrooms on the ground floor were more spacious and much more accommodating. And unlike the ones on the twelfth floor, they also weren’t directly across from a certain practice room that you’d rather not loiter near.

So much for that stealthy and secretive plan.

With no further reasons to stay, you excused yourself and made your way into the bathrooms to finally feel a sense of relief about something. Even if that something was merely a bodily function, it still counted.

You took your time heading back to your office, secretly hoping that everyone would be back to work by the time you found yourself in the hallway that led to your waiting office.

Your meandering, although bad for your current heavy workload, was good for your nerves and you were pleasantly surprised to find all traces of familiar faces (and familiar hands) long gone by the time you returned to your station.

(But, okay, what the hell was that about anyway?!)

(Nevermind. It was nothing. It meant nothing)

Your office was just as you had left it at first glance, but as you rounded your desk, sitting on top of your chair was a simple black plastic bag that concealed something inside. You did not leave this here. It was new and foreign and when you lifted the bag it crinkled noisily, weighed down by something heavy that sat inside.

One curious set of eyes to peer inside and you recognized the contents nearly instantly.

There was a can of iced coffee; your favorite kind from the local convenience stores around here. The kind that was often fully stocked in Kyungsoo’s fridge in his home on every single one of your visits because he knew you loved them. They were just lightly sweetened and strong enough to pull your sleepy mind into the land of the living with minimal effort.

The coffee alone could have just been a coincidence. It was a popular brand that clearly anyone who drank coffee would have tried at least once in their life while living in this city.

You could have been left this little care package by anyone in this building who gave a damn about you in strictly platonic ways if it had only that can of coffee, but beside the coffee, sitting innocently at attention were two of the plainest, least impressive packages of triangle kimbap sold at nearly every single corner store in this whole city. The cheap ones. The kind with the least amount of filling and the only kind you would ever eat out of the vast assortment he begged you to try. The others were too much, too much filling, too spicy, too much mayo, or too much fishy taste, but these...these were always nice and would put a little smile on your face as you took the first bite into the crisp seaweed wrapped around the rice. Kyungsoo would laugh at you as you shook your shoulders after each bite and you’d giggle as he leaned in to pluck a single grain of rice from your lips with his own lips.

He got you the coffee that you loved and the kimbap that you loved and he knew you had lied to Sehun about eating lunch and would be starving by now after such a long day of work.

Why did he do this?

You didn't dare touch the items inside the black bag. You merely held it in front of you and looked down onto its contents as your e