Kris looked at his clock impatiently.  It was almost an hour since Tao left to make copies and usually it wouldn’t take this long.  Usually it would take Tao 30-45 minutes to make 100 copies of those booklets Kris had requested.  

After another minute he got up and decided to find the Chinese boy.  When he entered the copy room he saw Tao picking up some papers that were on the ground.  The other intern, Sehun, was right next to him, looking intensely at him. 

“I’m saving you right now.  The information I have isn’t pleasant,” Tao looked back at Sehun, “But if you really want to know…”

Kris entered the room and held out his hands for the copies, “Tao, I need those copies now.”

“Sorry Kris ge,” Tao bowed at him and handed the copies over. 

“How many months have you been working for me? You know better than to keep me waiting,” Kris said in an annoyed tone.  He didn’t like the way that Sehun was looking desperately at Tao.  Tao looked back at Sehun helplessly.  This little action made Kris grab the back of Tao’s shirt and drag him out of the copy room, “Enough talk time to work.”

Tao was embarrassed to admit to himself that he was jealous of Sehun.  He was jealous that Sehun only entered about a month ago and already he was closer to Suho than Tao ever was with Kris.  He was even more jealous that Sehun could have Suho wrapped around his finger at times and that the two had crazy office a few times a week. 

Because Tao hadn’t been getting any since he got to Korea and for hell’s sake he wanted Kris to like him.  Tao came into the office and stopped when he saw a lunch pack on his desk.

“Um…I was passing by this Chinese restaurant.  The food’s good…so I decided to get you something.”

Tao smiled.  For some reason Kris still stuttered when talking to him….well at least when he wasn’t yelling at him.  And there were random times when Kris would do something nice and then blush and Tao found him really cute.  His crush on Kris had long been quenched, but at times like this it would blossom again. 

Kris immediately moved to the side of the hall as Sehun rushed past him.  His face was red with anger but there were tears forming in his eyes. 

“Sehun? Are you okay?” Kris asked as Sehun passed him, but the boy ignored him and just harshly punched the down button on the elevator. 

Kris walked to his office and was surprised to see Tao at the corner of his desk, pulling at his hair. 

“I made a mistake,” Tao exclaimed.  The younger Chinese had told Sehun about what he’d seen on the 100^th floor about a year ago.  He got up and wrapped his arms around Kris.  Kris was shocked for a moment but of course he welcomed the hug and wrapped his own arms around the intern. 

“What did you do?” Kris looked over at his desk to see if there were broken pieces of paper or wrong copies of files but everything was still in order.

“I told Sehun something about Suho and I just heard him blow up on Suho.” 

“Oh that’s what happened?” Kris leaned back and put his hands on Tao’s cheek, “I’m sure they’ll get back together soon.  Don’t worry, Tao.”

Kris had to say he was more than getting annoyed at Suho and Sehun.  Not because of their relationship like Tao had once been jealous of, but because their lack of one.  Suho would stay in his office all day. 

Sehun had destroyed the annual files the day he dramatically stormed out.  Kris felt responsible of taking care of Suho and sometimes he would even bring up lunch for the red head.  The man forgot to eat unless Kris was there to give him something.  Suho’s work was less than par. Ms. Oh even came into Kris’s office one day requesting Tao to transfer to Suho’s department just so they wouldn’t fall behind on the workload. 

Tao refused for some reason. 

Sehun hadn’t come to work for two weeks.  The last time he did was to tell Suho he was quitting, but the cream hair colored boy would call Tao every two hours without fail.  Kris wasn’t sure what they talked about, but it was obviously about Suho. 

“Tao, I know that Sehun is really down right now but you have work to do,” Kris said as Tao returned from his phone call.

“He’s miserable.  I think he drunk called me thinking I was Suho hyung.”

“There must be something we can do,” Kris sighed as he passed Tao one of the files for him to fill out.  He’d been giving Tao a lot more work to do lately.  In a way he was proving to himself that he did need Tao.  And he was glad that Tao refused to transfer to Suho’s department for the second time.  He knew Tao liked Suho and it was more than obvious that Tao would be perfect under the public relations division. Yet Tao decided to stay with data management.  

“I have a plan, ge,” Tao smiled. 

And at the end of the day, Kris witnessed Tao grabbing Suho out of his office and dragging him towards the elevator.  Kris was a bit disappointed that Tao hadn’t asked him to come along.  The younger had told his plan to Kris.  He was going to drag Suho to Baozi where he knew Sehun spent most of his days and then try to get them back together. 

Kris wished Tao was as dedicated to their relationship.  A friendship was beginning to form between them but at the same time they were only making small steps. 

About a month had passed since Tao’s failed Seho reunion attempt and two months since Sehun had worked at Oh Corporation.  Ms. Oh entered Kris’s office with a serious look on her face. 

“Kris I need to send you to China to meet with the Chan Family Corporation.  They’re not planning on renewing their contract with us when it ends.”

Tao looked up from his desk and Kris looked up in alarm.  The Chan Family Corp was one of their biggest and closest clients and business partners. 

“What’s happened?” Kris asked. 

Ms. Oh sat down in the chair (Suho’s usual) and sighed, “Suho’s been going through a bad time right now.  His work isn’t as good as it should be and he made a mistake of turning in a less than perfect annual report to the Chans.  They’re requesting a data and information transfer.”

            “So you need me to bring over the files?” Kris looked alarmed, “Just give them up like that?”

            “Suho’s going with you.  He’s going to try to convince them to stay with us.  But you need to bring the files just to show we respect their decision if they do decide to cancel their partnership with us.”

            “You still have time though.  Their contract ends in five months.  But I just want to prepare you now.  Save the date.”

            “What does that mean for me?” Tao exclaimed as soon as Ms. Oh left. 

sorry if there seems to be a lot of seho (im really into them these days) but it's also cuz of a story overlap.  they also serve as a comparison to the taoris couple who are so damn slow at getting close i feel like putting them in a closet until they at least become good friends.  

BTW this story will end at eight chapters and if you're getting bored of this awkward relationship you're going to be surprised at how fast taoris will progress in the next few chaps :D