“, , . My boss is going to kill me,” Hyukjae sprinted from his front door, trying to not smash his face in the pavement and balancing an art piece under his arm. He put it safely on the back of his motorbike and hopped on it as fast as humanly possible. The previous night he had stayed until the wee hours of the night to study to do research for his dissertation, and now he was running late for his work that he had been hired not long ago. Great, Lee Hyukjae, splendid work he talked to himself in his head as he drove on the road. 

Fortunately for him he managed to not drive through the heavy traffic and arrived just ten minutes late. Which wasn’t exactly the best impression he could leave, but it wasn’t the worst at least. He ran inside the backdoor of the gallery after parking and sprinted as much as he was allowed to do in gallery corridors. 

“Well, well, if this isn’t the assistant I recently hired,” a woman’s voice came from behind him, and Hyukjae stopped abruptly, closing his eyes and squeezing them. “Nice of you to join us on this fine day,”

He turned around carefully and bowed.

“I’m SO SORRY. This won’t happen again. Ever!” He raised his head and looked at his ever so serene boss whose eyes were actually throwing daggers at him, but she just smiled and walked closer to him.

“I do hope so. Otherwise, you won’t be satisfactory for both of us,” Ms Kwon said and walked away from him, heading for her office. Hyukjae let out a deep breath he was holding in and felt his heart beating remarkably fast. 

Hyukjae was hired about two and a half weeks ago to work at LUMAS, which is a global art gallery with locations all over the world, as an assistant curator. He is currently studying for his masters of fine arts and was having a bit of a struggle to juggle both things. But he needed the money and working here would look awesome on his resume.
Hyukjae sighed again as he hung his jacket on the wall in one of the storage rooms and got out to get himself a cup of coffee. He headed for the kitchenette for the staff and rummaged around but it seemed they were out of coffee.

“,” he hung down his head and headed for his boss’s office. He knocked and waited for an answer.

“Come in,”Hyukjae snuck his head.

“Boss, we’re out of coffee. Is it alright if I sprint to the shop across us and grab some?” 
She didn’t raise his eyes from the documents she was looking into.

“Sure, just hurry up,”

He gave a little nod and exited. He went back to fast walking around the building and sprinted outside of it.
He arrived safely at the shop and started looking around for a different kind of coffee. He grabbed a few packets and headed to pay for them. When his turn came he realized that he had made the stupid, stupid mistake of forgetting his wallet. , he had put it on a desk in the storage room. 

“Ma’am I’m so sorry. Can I leave those here and come back? I work just over there and-“ suddenly a hand next to him sneaked and handed some cash to the cashier.

“Is this enough?” Hyukjae turned his head fast. If he believed in God and angels he would be certain that was being visited by one right now. A dark good-looking angel.

“I-I. You shouldn’t- I, you,” it would be an understatement to say that Hyukjae was at loose of words. More like his brain had vanished. The man looked at him and gave him a charming smile. Hyukjae felt his heart skip and his stomach was filled with butterflies. 

“You don’t have to worry, this is nothing much,” the cashier took the money before Hyukjae could think properly.

“I- I thank you very much;” he bowed deeply and stood up quickly.” I wish I could do something more but I have to go or I’ll get fired. I’m sorry,” he shouted half of the sentence as he was walking out of the door, almost bumping into other costumers.

The guy smiled at Hyukjae’s antics and shook his head turning back to pay for his things.

Hyukjae sprinted once again for the gallery and he was sure by this point that he’ll need a big ing dinner from all of this running around. 
He quickly made coffee and headed for the storage room to finally start his job. He opened the door and almost spilt his coffee over himself as his boss came into view. 

“Ah, here you are. I’m leaving you some documents that I already went over and I want you to do too about a new artist that is going to display his work in our gallery,” she exited the door before Hyukjae could reply to her but he still let out.

“Sure,” he sat on the chair beside the desk and started reading.

“Kim Jongwoon, 32, huh he’s a year younger than Heechul hyung,” he continued scanning the documents over the next few hours, getting familiar with the guy and his work. 
There were a few visitors in between his reading that Hyukjae welcomed and showed the art around the gallery. He would like to think that because of his sweet-talking they were able to sell a couple of art pieces that were pricy. 

After his shift, he headed to the supermarket to buy groceries that Heechul had wanted. Hyukjae was sure that soon enough Heechul would move out or he would kick out Hyukjae and make him look for another roommate. They’ve been living together for about two years because his best friend, Donghae, who was living with him, married. Sure he was happy for his best friend but that meant he was either going to end up on the streets for not being able to pay his rent because everything was ing expensive in Seoul or he would have to sell his organs or something. Fortunately for him, his hyung appeared like a very distrustful angel and offered him to move with him. However, Heechul now had a girlfriend, Momo. Sweet girl that he had been seeing for close to a year. Hyukjae had no idea how Heechul and he were still living together and he hadn’t just kicked him out. Of course, Hyukjae wasn’t going to ask him directly and risk being evicted by his own friend but he was on edge.

Once inside the apartment, Hyukjae dropped the groceries on the kitchen counter and headed for his room to undress and take a hot shower.

“Hyukjae, is that you?” Heechul shouted from his room as he appeared out from it.

“Yes, hyung. I just got in, the staff are in the kitchen,” Hyukjae shouted back.

“Thank you. I thought I was going to get stuck at work until later but this got sorted out earlier. Well, they really didn’t but I was told to just go home and we’ll continue tomorrow,” Heechul was explaining while shouting.

“Babe, can you tell him those things when he’s closer to you and not shout,” Momo appeared in the kitchen and grabbed a snack from one of the cupboards, sitting on one of the stools by the counter. 

“Sorry,” Heechul leaned closer to her and kissed on her forehead. 

Hyukjae emerged from his room with a towel on his neck and in only underwear on his body.

“Oh, hey, Momo,” he greeted the girl as he passed them while Heechul had his back turned but soon spun around to ask something Hyukjae.

“Lee Hyukjae!” Heechul shouted at him, scandalized by his friend appearance.

“What!” the man jumped a bit and shouted back, turning to face Heechul.

“Stop going around the house!” Heechul said sternly with his hands on his hips. He reminded Hyukjae of his mother. He shook his head and replied.

“First of all I’m not , I have my briefs on. Second – I’m going to shower for goodness sake,”

“But as you can see it’s not just us anymore,” Heechul got closer and spoke softly, pointing his head to his girlfriend. Hyukjae moved his head at the side to look at Momo then back at his hyung.

“But Momo doesn’t live here; she just visits from time to time,” Hyukjae pointed at the girl who was munching on the snack unbothered by the scene.

“But you make her uncomfortable. Right, Momo?” Heechul said without looking at her.

“Not really.” The girl replied without missing a bit.

“See, she-wait, what,” Heechul looked smugly for a bit before snapping his head at the direction of his girlfriend.

“Love, I don’t really care and that’s his home. He’s paying and I’m just a guest. Also if I was uncomfortable I would have told him like a normal human being and not a drama queen,” Momo shrugged and headed for the living room space to turn the tv on.

“But-“ Heechul tried to argue but was ignored.

“See, hyung. Now get off my and worry about yourself.” Hyukjae turned to enter the bathroom and closed the door behind him.

“Yah, Lee Hyukjae, don’t be disrespectful!” Heechul shouted while returning to the kitchen.

“Sure, grandpa,” Hyukjae replied in a normal voice.

The next day Hyukjae arrived in work so early that even his boss wasn’t yet. It didn’t take long for her to get there but still, Hyukjae was thankful that he wasn’t going to receive cold stares today. Also today they were supposed to meet the new artist and he went to check out the place where they were supposed to place his work. He greeted the visitors on his way over and asked if they needed anything. Just before he turned around the corner where the place was he stopped in his tracks.

Are my eyes deceiving me? He thought in his head. Hyukjae turned to his left and there he was. 

My dark angel Hyukjae stared at the man in front of him that was concentrated on a painting. The man slowly turned his head towards Hyukjae and smiled softly. Hyukjae’s eyes widened and he realized that he had spoken out loud. He was hoping that it was quiet enough so the man couldn’t hear him.

“Hello,” he extended his hand and Hyukjae took some time to grab it and shake it. “We meet again.” 

The man’s hand was so small that Hyukjae could easily envelop it with his own. It was so cold and slightly