Kris offered to teach his intern Korean, but the lessons never happened.  This was because during lunch breaks at the office, Tao became good friends with one of the marketing managers Kyungsoo.  Kyungsoo loved spoiling Tao by baking him cookies and making him lunches.

“Because he’s so cute.  And he actually appreciates my cooking,” Kyungsoo had said. 

And even though Kyungsoo was intermediate at best with his Chinese, he was best friends with Jongdae from Finance who had studied abroad in China during his high school years.  And together they would hang out after work with Tao.  And that’s how Tao improved in his Korean. 

It had been a week and Kris was a bit annoyed at the progress of his relationship with Tao.  They both spoke Chinese, were both from China and were considered the office giants so why couldn’t they become closer?  It was weird.  They worked together for about eight hours a day, but they were lucky to exchange twenty words during it 

Earlier in the week, Tao would try to start light conversations but Kris would be so awkward in answering (he was basically a conversation killer) that Tao had given up.  It’s not like Tao hated work.  Kris really had no idea what to do with an intern, so basically he sent Tao off on pointless missions and assigned him trivial tasks.  But Kris could never miss the amount of times Tao would look at the clock when he was in Kris’s office.  Usually 58-70 times before lunch break and around 45-67 times after it.

“Boss,” Tao bowed and Kris looked up.  He tried to say that it was unnecessary to bow.  But in the end he glared at the intern. 

“Um…I was wondering if it’s okay if I can return this container to Kyungsoo ge from marketing?  He gave me lunch today and ----“

“Yeah.  It’s okay.  He’s on floor 80,” Kris said harshly in Korean.  He didn’t know why he purposely spoke in Korean to complicate things for his intern but it probably had something to do with his anger over Tao calling Kyungsoo ge.  Tao looked confused for a second but he quickly left the room before Kris could tell him in Chinese. 

Tao didn’t know why Kris hated him.  Tao never did anything to annoy or offend his boss.  However Kris still didn’t seem to trust him.  Tao was always given useless tasks and chores like Kris didn’t trust him with actual work.  And whenever he tried to start conversations, his boss would shoot them down.  Tao had to admit, even to himself, that his boss was dashingly handsome and y.  But Kris was also uptight like he had a stick up his .  It made being with the older man awkward.  There was a three year difference between them which wasn’t much but they might as well be from different planets. 

Tao got in the elevator and frowned.  Kyungsoo had told him before what floor he worked on and Kris had told him in Korean but he still didn’t really know numbers well. 

For some reason Tao decided to press number 100 and he waited for the elevator to reach the top level, hoping that was where the marketing department was. 

When the doors opened he stepped out and his mouth dropped in awe.  The floor was marble and it just looked beautiful.  Everything looked like it was tinted in gold.  It must’ve been the marketing department.  There was an empty desk in the elevator lobby.  Tao looked at it for a second before moving forward.  He couldn’t help looking around at the thick wooden doors that lined the halls.  He stopped at the biggest one at the end of the hall and knocked.  Nobody answered and he assumed it must lead to another hallway or at least the break room where he could leave a note for Kyungsoo. 

So he opened the door and immediately wished he hadn’t. 

Because he realized he wasn’t on the marketing floor when he saw Ms. Oh, the company CEO and head boss lying on a large conference table.  And Suho was on top of her.  They were both dressed but Ms. Oh’s hands were fumbling with Suho’s belt and her buttoned down shirt was ed.  Tao quickly saw them meet briefly in a kiss before he ran out of there.  Luckily they didn’t see Tao.  Nor did they ever know that he’d seen this. 

“Where do you think you’re going,” Kris asked as Tao got up from his chair. 

Tao looked at the clock, “Lunch break.”

Kris looked at his computer time without looking back up at Tao, “You still have three minutes left.  Don’t leave until then.”

“But ge,” Tao stopped when he realized what he’d said, “Boss…it’s only a few minutes off.”

Kris looked up surprised, “You can call me ge if you want.”  He felt his cheeks heat up.  He turned off his computer, “And I thought maybe we can go to lunch together?”

“Here you go,” Kris brought the tray to their table and pulled out his own chair.  Tao looked over the tray full of food and grabbed the bowl of Chinese food and chopsticks while peering at Kris’s sandwich.

“You like tuna?  It smells yucky,” Tao didn’t know what other word he should use to describe the smell of tuna on someone’s tongue.

“I like tuna,” Kris grabbed his sandwich and opened his cup of coffee.

“You like black coffee?” Tao asked amazed, “How can you drink that stuff?  It tastes so bitter!”

“There’s nothing wrong with liking bitter stuff,” Kris took a sip of his coffee and eyed the food that Tao had.

“And why do you eat that stuff?  You know it’s not as good as the real stuff.”

“Yeah, but in a way it reminds me of home,” Tao shrugged as he bit into an egg roll. 

“So why did you decide to work here?” Kris asked as he took out the pickle in his sandwich.

“I wanted to challenge myself.  Oh Corporation is famous in Korea and in China.  And Korea is a nice country.”

“It is a nice country,” Suho sat down right beside Kris.

“So the dragon has come out of his cave,” Suho nudged Kris, “Tao, you don’t know how hard it is to get this guy out of his office.  All of a sudden you come along and here he is,” Suho smiled, “interacting with office people.” 

Suho stole the pickle off of Kris’s tray and put it into his own sandwich.  He sipped his Starbucks mocha coffee and eyed Tao, “So how is the monster treating you?”

Kris glared at Suho. 

“Kris ge is nice,” Tao explained in Chinese but he bowed as he realized Suho probably didn’t understand anything of what he said.  

“Ah,” Suho nodded and answered in Chinese, “That’s amazing.  I didn’t know this robot could do anything but work!”

Tao laughed and Kris’s expression turned darker.  Suho had been brushing up on his Chinese and he was good with languages.  It made Kris a bit angry.  He and Tao were the Chinese speakers in the office.  He didn’t want Suho to intrude in that. 

“You know I could use an intern,” Suho leaned forward and took Tao’s other spring roll, “Business has been crazy lately.  I could use a lot of de-stressing.”

Tao just nodded his head.  Somehow he was sure that Suho had a method of de-stressing and the reason was on floor 100 of Oh Corporation. 

Suho looked at his watch, “Well I have work to do.  I’ll talk to you guys later.”  Suho smiled and patted Kris on the back before leaving. 

And after Suho left, Kris couldn’t recover from Suho’s brash statements or insults.  Could he call teasing insults?  Well only awkward silence followed. 

The next months followed the same as the first week.  Tao was gaining popularity in the office and his Korean lessons with Kyungsoo and Chen were definitely helpful because he no longer came to Kris with help in translating.  He could carry on normal conversations in Korean just fine.  And Kris hated it.  He hated how he still wasn’t friends with Tao.  He hated how everyone else was. 

But by the seventh month, Kris had completely more than given up.  He and Tao had settled into this normal routine of awkward silences.  Tao would come in and Kris would give him things to do.  Most of the time, Tao was given errand runs to the copy room.  Around the same time every day Tao would go to the break room for his normal cup of tea.  And then at noon they ventured to the café together.  On rare days they would eat together but for the most part Tao would eat with Kyungsoo and Chen.  Suho had become more or less busy in the last month.  They rarely saw the man who had recently dyed his hair red.  However, whenever they did see him he would always complain about how he wanted an intern like his life depended on it. 

Something that did change however, was Kris.  And not in a good way.  Kris was more critical than ever on Tao.  Tao had to be flawless with his work.  And always prompt.  It had more or less become a habit for Kris to yell or criticize Tao at least two times a day.  And he more than once would threaten to fire the Chinese man.  Not that Kris ever would.  He was still fond of the boy despite their failed friendship.  In a way, he liked how the Chinese man would always try to please him.  And the way Tao would smile after Kris praised him…it always made Kris’s day.  It just that Tao was scared of him. 

guys thanks so much for those who subbed and commented!! still can't believe that I got that many subbers by just the first chappie!!!   I hope I won't disappointe you :(