Well... this whole internship thing wasn't nearly as bad as Ten thought it was going to be. 

He was on his second week, and it was still bad. It's an inevitable thing that comes from working at a tech start-up, it , but it didn't quite as bad as he thought it would. 

Ooh, . Maybe he should set up a appointment for Friday night. Something to take the edge off. 

He leaned back in his office chair (yes the ones with the swivelly wheels!) and pulled up grindr. 

"Seriously Ten? Grindr at the workplace?" His direct boss, one very terrifying Miss Kim Jungeun spoke. (Ten's coworkers call her Kim Lip because she has clearly never stopped nagging in her entire life). 

"Ooh! Let me help you go through the guys," his co-intern Hyunjin cheered, sliding next to Ten on her swivelly chair to look over his shoulder at his phone. 

"No. No grindr at the workplace!" 

Ten and Hyunjin rolled their eyes, going back to their respective desks. They didn't even get cubicles.

Jungeun, sadly enough, was the only hardass in this entire place. Ten could appreciate it, because her late nineties serious businesswoman aesthetic was absolutely killer, but it wasn't exactly amazing having a strict boss. When he would pass by the other departments, he would never fail to see all of the employees gathered around one cubicle, including their manager, laughing at some youtube video or sharing takeout. 

The dress-up game department was where Neo Culture Technology employees went to die, clearly. It was made up of one-third nepotism babies, one-third good employees who didn't fit the tech start-up vibe, and one-third interns who were supposed to do the majority of the work. 

Ten huffed, bored out of his wits. What was he supposed to even do if he couldn't look at grindr?

He looked at the clock on his computer. Eleven am: the secret extra break that Ten invented for himself to grab coffee. "I'm gonna get some coffee." 

"Not before you send me the rest of your designs," Jungeun rebutted.

"Already sent. Check your email." Without another word, Ten stood up and made his way out of the office. 

The main reason why this whole thing wasn't nearly as bad as he had thought was because of the in house cafe. This place was too good for normal office things, one of them being a pathetic little keurig in some sad break room. No way, Neo Culture Technology had its own artisinal coffee shop, complete with professionally trained baristas and a list of where the different kind of beans came from and instagram worthy latte art. AND it was free for employees. 

Ten was a walking advertisement for this place. Maybe he should switch to marketing. 

But...there was a wrench in his plans. 

"Hey Ten!" 

Kun was there, waiting in line for his own drink. Ten's expression bloomed into a bright grin. Cringe. 

"How's it going over in dress-up?"

"Ugh. Jungeun is such a hard . She wouldn't even let me look at-" 

Ten stopped. Why was he hesitating to say grindr? He never hesitated to admit to anyone that he had grindr. Hell, he looked at grindr in front of his boss. But he didn't want to say it to Kun, for whatever reason. 

He refused to think about why, because whatever reason it was would be icky. 

"My phone. She doesn't let us look at our phones." 

"Really? That . As long as we take care of what we need to do for the day, my boss lets us do whatever." It could've sounded like bragging, but Kun made a cute (barf) pouty face along with it, so Ten knew he meant sympathy. 

"It's whatever. I can just look at it now. Or in the bathroom." 

They shared a laugh and Ten had to hold back another stupid smile. 

Ten had few allies in this place, because he was, ya know, him. Hyunjin was one, obviously, but Kun was another. Which was weird, because he always looked so pristine in his crisp suits and jelled back hair and was in the finance department and hung out with the other finance guys but he seemed to enjoy talking to Ten. They didn't cross paths much, but Ten figured they must've had the same idea about the eleven o'clock coffee runs, and it was a nice little respite in his stressful days. 

Things got quiet and kinda awkward so both turned back to their phones, Ten's group chat blowing up. 

lets get lit friday, Yangyang had written. 

yea, Xiaojun had answered a few moments ago. 

nah im trying to get laid friday, Ten typed quickly. 

also no one says lit anymore

off, Yangyang answered quickly. He must be studying. 

also why not both?

we go to the club together...

we leave separately Yangyang punctuated his message with the person wearing sunglasses emoji.

why dont we do saturday tho, Ten answered.

then i have a chance of getting some two days in a row

DOWN, Xiaojun typed. 

aight that works. Another person wearing sunglasses emoji courtesy of Yangyang. 

Ten hummed. If he was going to go out Saturday, he should check his bank account to see if he can even afford it.

Yes, Ten is blessed with an allowance while he's in college. But...he had so many important things to spend it on! Like tattoos! And drinks! And condoms and lube! And take out! There was no time for saving. So, he often ended up with a mostly empty account at the end of every month. So, he opened his bank app. 

“.”

Kun looked at him with a quizzical expression. Ten looked up at him; he'd forgotten he was still ahead of him in line.

“I’m broke.”

Kun looked disgusted. “Really?”

Ten pouted. “I have five dollars in my account.“

Kun emitted a fatherly sigh. “Do you have a secondary stream of income? Like, a side hustle?”

Ten scoffed. “No? School and, this, is enough.”

“You should really get on that. You have to hustle if you want to be successful.” 

“Well…what’s your side hustle?”

“Buying and selling crypto.” 

Ten barely avoided vomiting in his mouth. “Cr-crypto?”

“Yeah. Lately I’ve been working with NFT’s. Really fun stuff. I’ve been making bank.”

Now, it was Ten’s turn to look disgusted. And to think he’d thought this guy was kinda, sorta, in a weird kinda way… hot, at orientation. 

“Ever thought about investing?” 

Ten had to work double-time to sound even remotely pleasant. “Mm, no. Not my thing.”

“Then what is your thing?” Kun scoffed. “Astrology?”

Okay, so he is an . “Yes, in fact, it is.” 

“Oh, am I, ooh, such a Capricorn?” Kun teased, and not in a nice way. 

“Yes you are,” Ten gritted through his teeth, inaudible.

Kun humphed and turned to the barista, all business smiles. 

"I'd like one black coffee please. No bull."  

Straight black coffee. Of course. 

The barista turned around and quickly poured him a cup. Kun thanked her and put the lid on, and Ten could see Kun's grin shut off as he turned back to look at him.

“See you around. I guess,” Kun spoke, marching back to his sad little cubicle in his stupid navy blue, perfectly ironed suit. 

“If I must.” 

There went one of Ten's two friends. 

He tried to shake it off, giving the barista his own fake smile. 

"One caramel macchiato please. With oat milk."

~~~~~~~~~~

Lunch. 

Ten should've looked forward to lunch. The food was exceptional, of course, employees were provided free meals made by professionally chefs, with a variety of different cuisines including vegetarian, vegan, and gluten free options. 

It was the politics, though, that Ten couldn't stand. It was like a ing middle school cafeteria up in there. Every day he worked, from noon to one pm, he got to relive the worst days of his life. 

Ten spotted Kun immediately, sat at a table with his finance friends. Usually he got a smile and a wave from him during lunch, but today he wasn't even afforded a glance. Oh well. Whatever, Ten thought, trying to convince himself of it. 

Hyunjin's apartment was close enough to the start up that she would just go home during the lunch hour. And Kun had never sat with him in the first place, so that meant Ten had zero allies for the lunch hour. Now he had negative one ally even.

So he took his usual seat in the corner of the break room, the one with only one chair, and stuffed his delicious cobb salad into his mouth. 

It was fun to try and convince himself that it was extremely y and hot that he sat by himself at lunch, and that he was so much cooler than everyone else at this stupid ing company that did nothing except dress up games, as far as he could tell. That he was just...better. And that's why he was alone. Because these other people weren't good enough. 

He tried to convince himself of it.