今日は私の誕生日です！誕生日おめでとう！皆さんにプレゼントをあげます！楽しんでください！

In the grand scheme of things, Hyukjae’s life was pretty good. He had a well paid job, a nice flat and a close circle of friends who made settling into life in Seoul an easy task. His job was pretty boring, he didn’t think he would be one to end up in an office job but here he was, sitting in a small cubicle trying to meet his deadline in an attempt to not become the latest victim of his boss’ wrath.

“Lee Hyukjae! In my office right now!” Hyukjae won’t admit it but he is certain he squeaked as he jumped out of his chair and headed into the boss’ office.

He bows deeply, afraid to make eye contact with his boss. “Sir.”

“What is this?” His manager holds up a piece of paper and he has to squint to try and read what it was about.

“It’s the report you asked me to type up for you last week.”

“Did you read through it once it was complete?”

“I didn’t get the chance too. You gave it to me with the deadline to be completed in an hour.” Hyukjae blinks furiously in an attempt to stop the tears that were welling up in his eyes from falling.

“Let me just read you a small part of your report. ‘A 20% markup of our products can increase profits.’ Do you see what is wrong here?”

“Sorry, sir, but I don’t see the issue with that.”

“A 20% markup of our products can increase profits? Of course it will increase profits. Imagine if we released your report to the public. It will make us a laughing stock on the street. You need to make sure that all reports are double, no triple, checked before they are sent to me. You can go.” His boss shoos him out of his office and Hyukjae has to run to the bathroom before anyone catches his tear stained face.

Yes, in the grand scheme of things, Hyukjae’s life was pretty good. The only bad thing was his boss. His boss was efficient, thorough and always working, so it wasn’t much of a surprise when the old boss resigned that he was promoted up to the position at such a young age. However, these positive characteristics were unfortunately offset by his lack of interpersonal skills. Everyone in the company truly respected him. Well, Hyukjae isn’t sure of the boundary of what respect is and what being scared of his boss is.

“Yah, Lee Hyukjae, are you okay? I saw Kyuhyun absolutely grilled you just now.”  Donghae, his close colleague, is leaning over the cubicle wall with a coffee in his hand. He places it on the desk, knowing that Hyukjae will appreciate it more than the ty coffee machine coffee that he is certain has never been replaced in the whole time since he started working for the company.

“Yeah, he did. I deserved it. I made a stupid mistake. I’m going to be here late tonight no doubt.” Hyukjae grumbles, not looking up from his monitor. He has another deadline and he is not sure he would be able to survive another beating from his boss.

“I highly doubt you made a mistake.”

“Well, you know how Kyuhyun is. A perfectionist. I wonder what he is like at home when he doesn’t have to deal with all of this boring office job nonsense.”

“I doubt there is much in his house. I swear he lives to work, not works to live.”

Heechul, a colleague who is in the same team as him, leans over from his desk slightly. “I’m not so sure about that. I’m not sure if you noticed, but he has a ring on his marriage finger. Gold.” 

Hyukjae can’t help but look up and stare into the glass office where his boss is sitting, trying to see if the ring that Heechul mentioned actually existed. “What?! He’s married? I wonder how someone can deal with someone with such a bad attitude.”

“How did he manage to get her in the first place?”

“Maybe he got married while he was young and their marriage is a shambles. That’s why he is always in office and has a attitude.”

“I wonder if she is hot.” Hyukjae tries to imagine what kind of woman Kyuhyun would marry. Tall, slim? 

“I highly doubt she would go for you, Hyukjae. Kyuhyun has money and you don’t.” Donghae laughs.

“I definitely fare better on the looks though, and way better on personality.”

“You’re both wrong.” Heechul says, interrupting the two males, a glimmer in his eye. “He is definitely gay.”

“How do you know?”

“Sixth sense. I just know.”

“Please, you’re wrong.”

“I’ll bet you dinner at our usual restaurant that Cho Kyuhyun’s spouse is-”

“Cho Kyuhyun’s spouse is what?” Hyukjae almost spits out the coffee he was drinking. How did he not notice that his boss had walked over, a large stack of paper in his hand.

“Cho Kyuhyun’s spouse is the best thing that ever happened to him, of course.” Donghae spouts out before Heechul has a chance to make some kind of snide comment.

“Lucky save, Lee Donghae. Unfortunately not quite good enough to get away with it.” Kyuhyun drops the stack of paper on Hyukjae’s desk, and Hyukjae and Donghae use it as an opportunity to take a look at the ring on Kyuhyun’s finger. “Thank you for kindly volunteering to go through these reports and filing them away appropriately.”

“I actually can’t stay behind tonight, I have a date.” Hyukjae realises what he says and wants to take it back, he needs this job after all.

“Not anymore, you don’t.” Kyuhyun turns and starts to walk away before stopping after a couple of steps. “Oh yeah, and my spouse is the best thing that has happened to me.”

Hyukjae stares as his boss walks away and Heechul stands up to smack Donghae on the side of his head. “‘Cho Kyuhyun’s spouse is the best thing that ever happened to him, my ’” Heechul grumbles

“Well, at least we know now that he is married, right?” Donghae smiles guiltily, knowing that they are going to be in office for a long time tonight, earning himself another smack. 

It was safe to say, after last night, Donghae hated his job. Him, Hyukjae and Heechul ended up staying in office until past midnight working on the reports that their boss had given them to file. Well, at least he got to order dinner on the company card and sing loudly to the recent music releases (that was until their boss came out of his office telling them the walls were not soundproof and that they should not consider a new career path).

To make it worse, he had to be in office by 8 the next morning to be in time for a spontaneous meeting (that Kyuhyun decided to organise at midnight).

“Stupid boss, stupid job.” Donghae grumbles to himself lazily after the meeting. He can barely keep his eyes open so he considers getting a coffee from the new cafe just downstairs, but he is sure that he will receive the death glare if he leaves his desk after such a disastrous meeting.

He busies himself with typing up the minutes from his meeting, eyes trained to the computer screen, but he can definitely feel them closing.

“Sorry, excuse me, would you mind telling me where Kyuhyun’s office is?” Donghae looks up to see a young male standing with a bright smile on his face.

“Er yeah, let me show you.” Donghae sits on the other side of the office to where Hyukjae and Heechul sit so he decided it was probably easier to directly show this guy where the boss’ office was. Plus, it was a good opportunity to move his legs and hopefully wake himself up slightly. He leans over to his colleague, Ryeowook, and asks him to read through the minutes so far and just jot down anything extra that he may have forgotten. Ryeowook nods without looking up and Donghae wonders to himself what deadline he may have.

“So you’re new here?” 

“You could say that. Still trying to find myself around the building.” The guy chuckles to himself and Donghae wonders what he is thinking about. 

“Well, this is his office. Just a word, as a friend, don’t take what he says to heart. He may be harsh but he is just passionate about his job.” Donghae smiles but doesn’t fail to notice the look of confusion on the other male’s face.

“Er, thanks for that.” The male smiles and pushes the door open. Donghae thinks he is crazy and is asking for a death wish for having the balls to open the door without knocking. He doesn’t think about it for long though as his watch beeps, indicating that it was on the hour and he had precisely 13 minutes left to type up the minutes and hand them over to his boss.

He groans as he runs to his desk, furiously typing up what he remembers of the meeting. He knows it is a half assed job, but it is going to have to do as he doesn’t have time to read through it again. Between being late and handing over a poorly written report, handing it late was much worse and he would much rather still have a job.

The blinds surrounding the glass walls of his boss’ office were down, but he can make out two people in the room. Wow, poor guy, Donghae thinks to himself, as the last person who spent at least 15 minutes in Kyuhyun’s office left the room with tears in their eyes and Donghae was pretty certain he never saw them again.

As he stands outside the door, he decides whether or not he should knock on the door and interrupt the other meeting. However, before he even gets the chance to knock, the door opens and he stands there with a confused expression on his face.

“Come in.” The man, who he doesn’t know the name of, smiles letting him into the room. Donghae just stares at the man, not understanding how this person has managed to survive being in the same room as his boss for a prolonged period and still be smiling.

“Jongwoon.” Kyuhyun sighs. “You can’t just let people into my office.”

“What’s stopping them from coming in, anyway?” The guy, Jongwoon, looks confused.

“Their respect for me as their boss.”

The guy laughs and wow, Donghae is amazed at the balls of this person who can laugh at his boss and still have a job here. He inspects the other guy, who is leaning casually against the door, and his eyes divert to the hand that is still resting on the door handle-

Oh.

Wow.

There is a ring on this guy’s hand.

It’s gold.

And it is the same as the band around Kyuhyun’s finger.

He is pretty certain he gasps in shock, and he looks back at his boss, noticing a weird expression on Kyuhyun’s face. Embar