Hyukjae and Donghae arrived at the office fairly early. There were barely any cars present in the basement parking lot which eased Hyukjae's mind quite a bit. He released a sigh of relief, his chest and shoulders visibly deflating as the tension he didn't know he was holding in dissipated. Donghae who's been sneaking glances at him the entire ride, couldn't help but frown a little at his action.

"Is it that bad to be seen with me?" He asked, his voice laced with slight disappointment. 

Hyukjae turned to face him and the saddened look on Donghae's face triggered an immediate guilty feeling inside him. It wasn't that he was ashamed of Donghae. Not at all! As a matter of fact it was the complete opposite. It was more like he was ashamed for him. Seriously. Nothing between the two of them made sense and he didn't want to harm Donghae's image in the company by being careless. 

"You know it's not because of that," he started to explain but the frown on Donghae's face didn't go away. Hyukjae pursed his lips together and wanted nothing more than to see Donghae smile again. "I just don't want to give people things to talk about. If they see us coming to work together they're sure to start gossiping, moreso if they catch us getting out of the same car. It wouldn't be good for your image as CEO to be seen with someone like me."

"Someone like you?" Donghae repeated with all the confusion in the world. It really bothered him how easily Hyukjae puts himself down whenever it comes to the both of them. "What's so wrong about someone like you? I like you."

Hyukjae once again, couldn't help but blush at Donghae's words and how easy and comfortably he could say those words out loud. No matter how many times he hears Donghae say it, his heart still beats like crazy. He could feel his breath catch at the base of his throat and tried to clear it as lowly as he could in order to avoid attracting attention, but failed miserably. He and the driver shared an unintended eye contact through the car's rear view mirror, making Hyukjae blush even more at the fact that someone was thereto witneess Donghae's confession to him. His heart and stomach was doing flips inside his body while his brain tried to process everything that was going on around him. 

The sound of the car's high pitched screeching tires broke his train of thought as the car approached its stop. Donghae's driver got them as close as he could to the building's elevator before putting the car in park and immediately getting out in order to open the door for Donghae and Hyukjae's exit. Donghae got out of the car first with Hyukjae following right behind him. The latter awkwardly bowed his head in gratitude to the driver while Donghae went ahead to press the elevator button for them. 

"Uhm..th-thank you again, Ahjussi, for driving us," he awkwardly said but right before he could join Donghae in the elevator he heard him say something that stopped him in his track. 

"You're special you know."

Hyukjae blinked and turned around with a semi-confused look on his face. "E-Excuse me?"

The driver closed the door and showed Hyukjae a soft gentle smile. "Master Lee knows what he's doing. I've learned to place my trust in him many years ago. You should try doing so as well." 

Hyukjae still wasn't quite able to follow what the elder was trying to tell him. "O-Okay?"

The latter just smiled at Hyukjae's confused state and bowed his head formally at him before walking back around the car and driving the vehicle off. Hyukjae stood in place, stunned and confused, until Donghae had to call his name out and snap him back on earth. 

"Yah! Hyukjae! Let's go. The elevator's here." 

The latter stumbled to get his belongings together then rushed to join Donghae in the elevator as to not keep the other waiting.

Once the elevator doors closed, the two of them had become mildly aware that they were in fact alone. A very rare opportunity in their short time together and Donghae couldn't help but be disappointed that there was still a lot of unspoken issues in the air they have to discuss; so he decided that he would take care of at least one of them today. 

"So," he started just to fill the silence. "About that second date, I mentioned earlier..."

Hyukjae did a side glance at him and tried his hardest to keep his body from completely turning just in case someone in the security camera were watching them. He took a quiet deep breath and swallowed the lump down his throat to make sure that his voice wouldn't give away just how nervous he was feeling around the other. 

"Yeah?" Hyukjae huffed quietly to himself and mentally scowled at his own answer. Get it together, Lee Hyukjae! Stop messing this up! 

After his brief metal pep talk, he cleared his throat one more time and reiterated what he wanted to say. 

"I mean, what-...what about it?" 

Donghae smiled to himself knowing how flustered Hyukjae can get. With his head held high and eyes looking directly ahead (so he could observe Hyukjae's reaction through his reflection) he said, "I was thinking...if you won't be opposed to the idea of it, I would like to officially ask you to be my boyfriend at the gala." 

Hyukjae's breath hitched as his heart skipped a beat and his eyes widened at Donghae's words, not quite sure if he heard what he thinks he heard come out of Donghae's mouth correctly. He turned his head to look at Donghae, unable to resist the urge to look for any signs that the other might just be messing around with him, but all he saw was Donghae's pretty smile and genuine eyes looking directly at him. 

The two of them stood side by side the elevator, just looking at each other as though they had all the time in the world. They were both entranced by the other'w gaze with their hearts and minds running a complete mess for different reasons. Donghae was anxious to know how Hyukjae would respond to his planned confession while Hyukjae was still trying to distinguish if he was in a dream or reality. If it wouldn't make him look like a complete fool in front of the other, he would have slapped himself in the face left and right just to be sure that he wasn't actually dreaming. Fortunately for Hyukjae, he didn't have to do any of that as their moment together was effectively interrupted by the sound of the elevator's ding and its doors opening to reveal an unsuspecting colleague. The sound of her surprised gasp was enough to make Hyukjae flinch and take a step back in order to create a visible space between him and Donghae. 

"Omo! M-Mr. Lee-...I-I mean Donghae-ssi!" She gasped completely surprised by his unexpected presence and immediately bowed her body at a 90-degree to greet him. "Goo-Good Morning, sir!" 

Donghae did a tight lipped side smile as he was forced to tear his eyes away from Hyukjae and properly greet her back as well. 

"Hello," he smiled at her politely. "Good morning." 

"I-I'll take the next one, S-Sir. It's not a-" she paused mid sentence when she finally took notice of Hyukjae's presence next to him and suddenly, without realizing it, faltered in her words as she slowly finished her sentence. "a...p-prob...lem..."

Hyukjae held his briefcase in front of him with both hands and was looking to the side trying to keep himself invisible but when he sneaked a look to see see if it was working, he was reduced to softly letting out a nervous chuckle followed by an awkward nod of his head as his way of greeting her. It didn't help that it wasn't just a random employee that they bumped into. It had to be the head of the PR and Social Media Relations. He was