You didn’t think ‘having a crush on your boss’ was a thing until you were working at the company that wasn’t even your first choice in the first place. Well, technically, the man you had a crush on was not the man you directly worked for. You could say that your other boss or the man who was in the same horizontal position as the one you worked for. But still, that and the fact that the other women in the company also felt the same way didn’t help your situation at all.

It’s inappropriate, others would say, but the thing is, those people didn’t have a boss like Park Chanyeol—who wasn’t only your boss, but also your neighbor and senior during your high school and university years.

(Technically, you didn’t live on the same floor, but you saw him a few times at the lobby, enough to assume that you’re neighbors).

Well, if you came to think about it, it was a little bit cliche—the whole “having a crush on Park Chanyeol” thingy. You were just an average-looking girl that didn’t stand out in the sea of girls with their long, silky and shiny looking hair, but you weren’t complaining, though. Not at all. Honestly, you were fine with watching from afar and keeping your distance from him. After all, you had always known that he was totally out of your league. You were fine and already used to do it for years but of course, someone had to mess that up.

“With all due respect, Junmyeon, stop sticking your nose into my business,” you spoke carelessly to the man you worked for during one rare lunch where he wanted to have lunch in his office with you. Junmyeon looked up from his food—his chopsticks mid-air and his mouth open—and squinted his eyes at you. Shoving a piece of mandu into his mouth, he furrowed his eyebrows and tilted his head to the side.

“I’m just trying to help. Why don’t you accept my help?” He spoke with a mouthful of food and blinked his eyes innocently—no, you knew he was nowhere near innocent. He might have an agenda behind this. Letting out a sigh, you leaned back on your chair and crossed your arms over your chest.

“You’re not helping me. You’re meddling in my non-existent love life,” you stated clearly, rolling your eyes in disbelief at your boss-slash-friend. This was not the first time Junmyeon tried to into your love life by trying to set you up on a date with people he knew, but the last three times this happened, it didn’t end well. Unlike what promised by Junmyeon, you didn’t end up going home with a man of your dreams that could take you higher (in bed, specifically). You ended up going home feeling crankier than you ever did before.

“No, really, I’m helping you,” he insisted. “I’m just tired of seeing you come back from all those dates and never scoring any. When’s the last time you get laid? How many years has it been?”

“My personal life is not your business, Jun.” You used the nickname that he hated since high school because you were starting to run out of ammunition to use against him. He surprisingly didn’t have that many dirt as you expected before. “Besides, not everyone can be a CEO of a multi-million dollar company and have constant dates every two weeks.”

“You don’t have a life outside this company and that’s why I’m helping you. Besides, you’ve been pinning on Chanyeol since forever.” Shrugging his shoulders casually, he grabbed another piece of mandu and shoved it again into his mouth. At this point, he wouldn’t leave a single piece of mandu for you.

“Yeah, and whose fault is that? I’ve been busy taking care of you and your unorganized for years.” Junmyeon ignored your words and kept munching on the damn mandu, his cheeks bulging and glowing like a rabbit. You held the urge to take a picture so you could use it as blackmail material.

“Just take the job, will you?” He said once he swallowed the food. “I really don’t have anyone that I can trust in that team other than Chanyeol. Besides, it will only be for a few months. Two months tops.”

You frowned at his words. “That team is filled by your employees that you hired yourself.”

“Technically, the HR people did.”

“My point is,” you paused to take a deep breath, “they’re going to do just fine without my help. I’m pretty sure there are people better than me.” You insisted that the additional job, once again, wasn’t necessary. You were already busy enough with Junmyeon and things that revolved around him. Clearly, you didn’t need the extra hour and the extra headache that would definitely come along with it.

“You’re the only one who knows my standards, though.” At his excuse, you let out a loud sigh and shook your head faintly. With Junmyeon, you knew you were never going to win.  

“You really are damn hard to please, aren’t you?” You breathed out tiredly, leaning back against the back of the chair and staring at him with a disapproving look. He just shrugged lazily at your remark and you were ready to say something again, but got interrupted with the sound of the door opening. Turning your head to see who it was, you swallowed heavily in nervousness and quickly and turned your face away, looking down at the food on the table in front of you.

The sound of his footsteps was muted because of the carpeted floor but you could smell the richness of his perfume, swirling around the room and filling in your senses. Your hands were clammy out of nervousness and you were trying to wipe it on your slacks discreetly. One more whiff of his perfume was enough to up all your senses.

“Oh, hey, Chanyeol,” Junmyeon greeted brightly with a smile, causing you to look up from the food. You didn’t miss the way Junmyeon’s lips twitched at the side as if he was mocking you.  “Have you had lunch yet?”

“I have, I have,” he said a bit distractedly and your heart was beating faster at the sound of his deep voice. Trying to distract yourself from how fast your heartbeat was, you picked up your chopsticks and grabbed a mandu from the food container in front of you, leaving two more. “Listen, hyung, about the team for the company workshop planning…”

“Oh, yes, she’ll do it.” You were shoving the food into your mouth when Junmyeon said that. You were incredibly lucky you didn’t choke on it. Staring at your boss with an unimpressed look, you held back the urge to throw the last piece of mandu at him.

“Me?” Looking at Chanyeol and Junmyeon back and forth, you were trying to make sense of the situation. Did Junmyeon really just accept the job on your behalf? When you’re perfectly alive and well and sitting in the same room as the two of them?

“Great!” Chanyeol sounded excited and when you looked at him, he had a huge smile across his face that his dimples shown and you felt like melting. As if it wasn’t enough, he looked at you with sparkly eyes and suddenly everything about him was bright to you. “I’m glad you’ll be joining the team. I will need a lot of your help.”

“Ah, sure, yes,” you stated in defeat, not sure if you were to feel happy because you could be a tad bit closer to the crush of your life or sad because of the extra work you would get. The way Chanyeol smiled at you like he was so grateful of you to be in the team made it seem like it was a gift to you, though—like the extra work would be nothing if it meant Chanyeol would smile at you like that again.

“Nice. I’ll invite you to the team group chat later, yeah?” His smile was so blinding that it could rival the sun and you found yourself just nodding at his words, hanging on to his words. You turned your gaze away from Chanyeol—your poor heart couldn’t take it anymore—to Junmyeon who was wiggling his eyebrows at you. “Hyung, are we still on for tonight?” Junmyeon quickly dropped his teasing attitude and plastered on a fake serious, innocent look across his face.

“Of course. I’ll see you tonight, Yeol-ah.” Chanyeol nodded and flashed you one last smile that you knew you wouldn’t forget until your last breath on earth before turning on his heel and walking towards the door. You turned and kept your gaze on him until he walked out of the room and closed the door on his way out.

Once Chanyeol was out of the room, you turned to face your boss again and glared at him. “What the , Jun?”

Junmyeon just shook his head faintly and he waved off dismissively, “you’ll thank me later.” You stared at him in disbelief as he continued finishing his lunch as if the past five minutes didn’t happen, as if he didn’t just agree on your behalf for things you weren’t prepared for.

The thought of having to work with Park Chanyeol closely for two months caused shivers to run down your spine, the clogs in your brain working hard trying to come up with the probability of you making a fool of yourself in front of him. You shook your head to yourself, trying to get rid of the thought that crossed your mind. We’ll cross the bridge when we get to it, you thought.

You didn’t know when you’d be thanking Junmyeon for his one-sided decision to shove you into the team for company workshop planning, but you knew it wouldn’t be anytime soon. Actually, you definitely didn’t thank him on the next day. Especially not with the string of unexpected events that you got roped in.

Park Chanyeol added you to the group chat only hours after he saw you at Junmyeon’s office on the previous day. When you first joined, there were only you, him, and two other employees that you knew but weren’t actually friends with. Everything was quiet for a while, no one started a conversation first in that group chat and you knew you wouldn’t be the first one to start it either. But after a day, you realized that there were about other six people included in the group chat—out of everyone you only knew Jongin and Jongdae—and you were a little bit thankful that at least you would have someone to talk to.

Everything was too quiet and exactly two hours after you thought