Minho walks across the lobby, bidding a muttered reply to Ho Dong's 'Have a good day, Mr. Choi!' He would have replied in a livelier manner if not for the fact that he is 100% sure that his assistant will be nagging at him for why he wasn't at work yesterday and why he wasn't answering his phone the minute he steps out of the building's doors and within the boy's range of vision.

After his talk with his hyung last night, he had been dreading the thought of having to explain to the boy why he had so abruptly missed a day of work. How is he supposed to explain to Taemin that he was the reason why he felt himself physically, mentally, and emotionally incapable of attending work yesterday?

He takes in a deep breath before stepping through the doors opened by the doormen. He mentally prepares himself and his heart for the verbal onslaught that is to come. He prepares his snarky remarks, his rude side-comments, and his timed eye-rolls.

But then it comes as a pleasant – and worrisome – surprise when he sees Taemin leaning on the car door that he is supposed to be holding open for Minho, not looking angry in the slightest as he rubs his temples looking almost as if he is in pain. His eyes are closed, so he does not notice Minho's presence until the man decides to make his footsteps a little louder when he is close enough to the boy.

"Sir!" He abruptly stands straighter, but it is as if his legs suddenly went weak as he wobbles back to lean against the car door again. He rubs his temples again and curses to himself silently. After a few moments of self-recrimination, he opens the door without a word to let the elder slide in. Minho does not want to make any comments or questions just yet, waiting for the other to be properly seated before he questions him for his odd behavior.

The slam of the door on the other side and the sound of Taemin scuffling into his seat are signals enough for Minho to start talking.

"Are... you okay?"

The younger, still massaging his head, snaps at him, "You tell me. I was the one who had to handle all of your missed meetings and delayed contracts yesterday." Minho winces, not expecting the reprimands to come so suddenly. It feels like a sneak-attack, Minho thinks as Taemin continues. "And you didn't even have the decency to answer your phone to at least tell me what was wrong with you."

Minho stares at the other, shaken at how serious he is being. He had expected a smack to the head or a rage-filled-but-still-funny rant -- certainly not a sarcastic, hateful comment and a seemingly concerned remark.

The brunette feels the elder's gaze on him and turns his head to meet his eyes. He sees the worried furrow of Minho's eyebrows and the slight frown tugging on his lips, making him feel guilty for snapping at him. He sighs and apologizes, "Sorry... I was drinking with a friend yesterday so I guess I got a little carried away. I've still got a hangover and I just can't handle any stress at the moment..."

He soothes the burning in his head again, and Minho is relieved to know that he isn't really the reason for making Taemin this crabby. He smiles in understanding, and Taemin goes on to say, "Just remember to tell me what's wrong the next time this happens, okay?"

"Okay." He feels like a kid being chided by his overprotective parents, but he doesn't mind because at least he knows that Taemin is not upset with him. He turns to the boy to , to lighten the mood and tell him that he sounds like a parent, but said boy is asleep, his head uncomfortably lolling against the car window.

He stares at the brunette, seeing the look of pain etched on his face even as he sleeps. Minho figures that the constant collision of his head against the window may be contributing to his throbbing headache. So doing what any gentleman would in this situation (or so he says), he wraps his arm around Taemin's shoulder and brings his head to lean against his own.

He is worried that the boy will pull away. He is worried that the boy will snap again and ask him what the hell he is doing. He feels Taemin tense up, and his fears almost come to life. But then the boy relaxes into him, and the fears die down, replaced with an overwhelming happiness. When the younger snuggles even closer to him, he almost faints from the extreme bliss he is feeling, but decides against it because he cannot afford to miss this moment.

Maybe it is the heart-warming feeling of the boy in his arms, or maybe he just got caught up in the romance of the moment, but something stirs inside him that makes him confident enough to voice out the question that he had been planning since yesterday's talk with Kibum.

"Taemin?"

A slurred 'Hm?' laced with drowsiness is the boy's only reply, snuggling his head even further, right into the crook of Minho's neck.

He smiles at how much the boy reminds him of an adorable kitten, making him feel more at ease. He rubs Taemin's side slowly to soothe the boy, and also to release some of the pent up anxiety.

"Would you mind accompanying me to my meeting later? You should know that I'm not forcing you or anything because that's not it all I'm just asking and it's okay for you to say no and there'll totally be a client so you don't have to worry about any--"

"I'll come with you." His rambling is immediately stopped by Taemin's sleepy voice, dismissing him carelessly with closed eyes. "Now hush. Wake me up when we get there." He burrows his face closer to Minho's neck, and the elder does not know if he is doing all of this on purpose or not.  

Shindong's voice blares through the car's speakers, alerting Minho that they have arrived, as usual. This time, the driver's announcement is actually useful because the man had been too busy watching the dozing boy beside him to realize that their building is within sight. He didn't want the car ride to end, but it came way sooner than he would have wanted it to.

The driver's voice startles him, making his body jerk slightly. Apparently, Taemin is a very light sleeper, since the small sudden movement wakes him up easily. He opens his eyes slowly, still far too drowsy to feel embarrassed that he had been sleeping on his boss's shoulder -- which in their case, is very inappropriate. Minho has not noticed that he has woken from his slumber, so he makes the first move to pull away.

He rubs the sleep from his eyes, not seeing the frown that had tugged on Minho's lips from the absence of his body against his side. He opens his mouth to yawn, but stops midway when he hears the car door on the other side slam close. He blinks, not understanding what is going on and why his boss has suddenly disappeared.

He gets a grasp of the situation when the door on his side opens, and it is not Shindong that is opening the door for him but a taller, tanner man and this makes him feel dopey because Choi Minho is smiling at him and is opening the car door for him.

He even momentarily forgets about his splitting headache. He looks down at his lap, shooing away the burning of his ears. He stutters out a "T-Thank you," lifting his first foot to lay flat on the concrete. His second foot is supposed to follow smoothly right after, but it seems that his headache is seeking for revenge for being forgotten and decides to attack right on that moment.

He lets out a less than manly scream, awaiting the impact of the ground. But then comes a pair of strong arms, wrapping around his torso and flipping him around, pulling him against a broad chest, safe from the rough texture of the sidewalk.

Taemin flutters open his eyes, ready to smile up at Minho in gratefulness, his knight in shining armor, just as any woman would in any cheesy romance movie. But his hopes are shot down to the ground and trampled on by a horde of elephants when he sees that it is not Minho, but the ever-reliable Shindong, who has his arms wrapped around him.

He hears Minho's voice from the sidelines asking him if he is alright, and Taemin does not give him a reply because he is too embarrassed as he pulls away from the driver while mumbling a 'Thanks', with the driver smiling at him cheekily, glad that he is okay.

He marches up the building's steps red-faced and all, leaving a grinning Shindong and a confused Minho standing by the car.

Come 7 P.M, after all of the major arrangements are done and over with, Minho fixes his hair, his suit, his tie, and his hair again and walks over to Taemin's office. He sees that the boy has tied his hair up again a he breezes through several multi-colored folders in a cabinet as tall as he is. He slaps on his usual 'boss' attitude and opens Taemin's door, one hand in his pocket, looking as cool as usual.

"Ready to go?"

Temin turns his head to look at the elder, his face contorted in innocent confusion. He pulls out an olive green folder and strides over to his desk, asking, "Ready to go where?"

Minho leans against the doorway, 'boss' demeanor gone, only a mild child-like disappointment. "To the meeting?"

The brunette has placed a pen in his mouth and a highlighter in his hand as he his head, still lost on the situation. "Huh?"

"I asked you to accompany me to a meeting back in the car. You said you'd come." The whine in Minho's voice is masked by the letdown he is feeling. Had he forgotten?

His suspicions are confirmed when Taemin's eyes widen in remembrance. The pen drops from his mouth as he rubs the back of his neck in guilt, not daring to look Minho in the eye. "I'm sorry, I guess I forgot..." He forces himself to look at the man directly, maybe just to prove that he isn't lying, "The thing is, I made plans with my friend after work today, and..."

Minho registers Taemin's words, letting out a disappointed 'Oh,' His dark fringe covers his equally dark eyes, muttering, "I guess I'll go on ahead then," as he pulls the door closed.  

The brunette watches his boss's shoulders droop slightly, and it makes him feel horrible. The man had seemed quite excited, and he goes and shoots him down. It's bad enough that he forgot that he had agreed to go with him, he had to go and make other plans. It's like he was intentionally slapping Minho in the face, and he just can't bear to live with that. So before Minho is completely out of earshot, he shouts, "Wait!"

The man turns to look at him, and Taemin sees the hopeful look on his face."I'm sure my friend will understand if I rescheduled our movie night." He puts on the most apologetic smile he can muster, relief flooding through him when Minho's frown disappears to be replaced with a set of perfect pearly whites.

"I'm sorryyyyyy! I promise I'll make it up to you next week!" Taemin has been whining into his phone the minute he and Minho seated themselves into the latter's flashy BMW. His friend was pretty grumpy when he picked up on the sixth ring, and Taemin assumes that he had just woken up. The man on the other line groans a 'Yeah, right.' as a reply, and this only frustrates the brunette. Why is he being so difficult?

"Kaaaaaaaaaaiiii..." Taemin draws out the i, and when his friend imitates him with a 'Taemiiiiiiiiiiiin..." to piss him off, the brunette decides to irritate him as well. He pouts his lips even though Kai cannot see him and then he whines again into the phone.

"Oppa~ Please forgive meeeee?" He hears Kai's breath hitch on the other line, making him smirk evilly and pushing him to continue. "I'm really sowwy oppa~" The baby voice and the endearing honorific are too much for the man, so he can only reply with a "You're paying next week." before quickly cutting the line off. Taemin laughs to himself, finding it amusing how easily his friend gets flustered. He does not notice that Minho had been watching him out of the corner of his eye for the whole duration of that phone call and he does not see the noticeably harder grip the man now has on the steering wheel.

Minho shifts in his seat, seatbelt brushing against his torso as he grunts out (in the friendliest way that he can) "Was that your friend?”

"Uh-huh!" Taemin replies in a cheerful, distracted way, completely oblivious to the darkness in Minho's voice because he is busy replying to a text he had just received from Kai telling him to stop it with the baby voices because they're annoying and actually cute but still annoying.

"Tch, more like boyfriend." The elder grumbles out as he makes a sharp turn.

"What was that?"

"Nothing." His grip on the steering wheel is almost turning his knuckles white, but then he relaxes and smiles when he gets a brilliant idea. "Hey, can I borrow your phone?"

"What for?" Taemin places his phone on the man's waiting open palm, not thinking much of it.

Minho smirks when he stealthily slips the phone into his inner jacket suit pocket, "I'll give it back to you later. No cellphones in the meeting." No disturbances from Kai-oppa either.

Taemin can only pout in return, because he knows that anything he says will not change his boss's mind. Kai’s probably too flustered to text back, anyway.     

The actual meeting*coughdatecough* will be in the next chapter! Short update for today. D: I’ll try getting the next one up by tomorrow or the day after that. :)

ANYWAY.

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