During the times when he was supposed to pick Minho up in the morning from his condominium, awake or not, Taemin never bothered again to go up to the man's room. He decided that it will be Minho's fault whether or not he will get to his morning meetings on time. And because of this new mind-set, Taemin always ended up getting scolded by Minho, most of the time with the elder saying things like 'It's your ing responsibility to make sure that I get to my meetings on time!' or 'Are you ing serious? You're still angry over what happened SEVEN ING DAYS AGO?' And of course, all of Minho's lectures and angry sermons are only met with a callousness that Taemin never thought he possessed.

 

During the times where Minho flirted with almost all of the good-looking female creatures his erted eyes can reach instead of doing the paperworks due the next day, Taemin did not bother to nag him any more to get back to doing his responsibilities. If the company fails because of his superfluous , Taemin would just suggest to Minho that he should build his own Playboy Mansion, what with the rate he's banging women from everywhere. Taemin did not warn him anymore about the possibility of detracting STD's from the several women he has with or the possibility of impregnating one of them, because he is sick and tired of the man's insatiable libido.

 

During the times where Minho was stressed out, Taemin did not offer him a cup of coffee, nor did he offer to help out with Minho's workload. If Minho thought that lowly of him, then he might as well live up to the man's degrading expectations. Unless he is told to do otherwise, he will try his best to avoid any sort of interaction with his boss. If the man was so afraid of him harassing him or crap like that, then he will stay away as much as he can. That should satisfy him, Taemin thinks.

 

But that is far from what Minho is feeling at the moment.

 

For the whole duration of the week where Taemin was passive and borderline indifferent, Minho realized that the kid was actually a tremendous amount of help to him. He did not realize how much lighter his work load became during the first month that Taemin worked for him. He thought back to the past bimbos he had as assistants, and he now knows that compared to Taemin, the kid is the only one worthy of being called the position. Minho has been trying to keep himself from panicking for the past seven days, but he knows that if this goes on any longer, he will eventually snap from the pressure and the stress piling on him.

 

He needs his assistant's help, whether he likes it or not.

 

He still hates the kid's guts, but he needs him.

 

'I'm only doing this because it's not healthy for two coworkers to have such tension hanging above their heads. Yeah, that's it. I'm only doing this because it gravely affects our work ethic.'

 

That is what Choi Minho tells himself as he paces in his office, currently overlooking Seoul's nightlife. The street lights are down on the quiet streets below. He has turned down the lights in his own office to a dim brightness, just the way he likes it. He is fond of the quiet that the almost-darkness provides. But it seems that he will not be enjoying this 'quiet' because right across from his office is Taemin, rummaging around in his own dimmed office. The brunette already has his messenger bag hanging from his shoulder, and Minho is -- dare he say it -- afraid that Taemin will leave before Minho even has the chance to ask him what he had been planning to ask this whole stressful week.

 

He takes a deep breath and strides across the short expanse of floor between his and Taemin's office. He knocks on the door, and it's either Taemin does not hear it or he is ignoring Minho, because he does not look up from the desk he is currently searching through. Minho almost backs out, but decides that it would just be better to get all this over with.

 

He pushes open the glass door and awkwardly coughs to get Taemin's attention.

 

Still no reaction from the brunette.

 

He rubs the back of his neck, embarrassed that he, of all people, is acting this way, "... Yah..."

 

Taemin does not even pause from his rummaging.

 

"...Taemin."

 

"What." Finally, the sound of rustling papers stops, but Taemin still isn't looking at him.

 

"Do you have a minute?"

 

"I don't know," he looks up at Minho, and Minho is thrown by the blank expression on his face and the venom in his voice, "Can you handle talking to a ? I might throw myself on you, you know."

 

Minho frowns, knowing full well that Taemin is reminding him of the things he had said that day. "About that, I..."

 

The elder stutters, and Taemin figures that this is going nowhere so he speaks,"I'm sorry sir, but I really have to go." He grabs the paper he had been looking for and puts it into his bag, "My father is expecting me to get back by 10, and it's already half past nine." He directs his eyes toward the ground and brushes past Minho at the doorway.

 

Minho catches Taemin's glazed eyes again as the shorter boy passes him and before he realizes it, he catches Taemin's wrist as well.

 

"Wait."

 

Taemin looks over his shoulder, back at Minho, his ponytail swinging around. His body is tense and motionless, and his voice is venomous as he spits out, "Let go of me."

 

The elder does not need to be told twice to know that the brunette is dead serious, so he lets go, but immediately speaks up so that Taemin does not have time to escape.

 

"It's just... Can we talk?"

 

Taemin angrily stares at his unusually perturbed boss for a few moments before he finally concedes, rubbing his temples in frustration. "30 minutes. And that's it."

 

 

 

"Will you please stop that?" Minho glances at Taemin who has been impatiently tapping his right foot the minute they sat down at the restaurant.

 

Taemin pauses from his incessant foot-tapping and looks at his watch, "15 minutes left."

 

"I think I'm going to need more than 15 minutes."

 

The brunette replies without missing a beat, "Then you shouldn't have bothered to drive us to a restaurant. You could've said everything that you had to say back at the office."

 

Minho winces at Taemin's sharp reply but quickly composes himself. Come on Minho, you've already gotten this far. You just have to apologize. That's it.

 

The server pulls him from his conversation with himself, asking him if he would like some wine. Minho glances over at Taemin and sees that the younger's glass is already filled with the sparkling liquid so he nods in consent as well. He starts to speak as the server pours in the wine.

 

"Okay, look... I know that the things I said that day were..." Minho trails off, trying to look for the right word. But Taemin flatly speaks for him as he swirls the liquid in his glass.

 

"Offense? Insensitive? Inhumane? Immature? Heartless?" Taemin throws out all these words uncaringly, and with every word, it is like an arrow to Minho's already-embarrassed heart.

 

He coughs awkwardly before replying, "... Yeah... That." The brunette takes a sip from his wine, hiding his smirk, amused that Minho had indirectly admitted to his brazenness. The elder continues, "It's just that... I've had a number of bad experiences with... your kind."

 

Taemin slams his now empty wine glass on the pristine white table cloth with a loud, "Excuse me?"

 

"Yah, don't make a scene--"

 

The younger scoffs at the man who was now looking around the room, trying to see if people were watching them. But frankly, after hearing what the man had said, Taemin could not care less if any one witnessed his outburst. Minho starts to speak again, saying something like, "I'm here to apologize, so just listen for one ing second!" but Taemin gives him no heed, not wanting to hear another word out of the man.

 

"Apologize? Believe me, I was actually expecting that you were finally going to apologize for what you did. But now here you are again, insulting me and my kind in the most degrading way possible. I never thought that you could be more of an than what I had seen last week, but I guess I was wrong." Taemin stands up to leave, throwing his napkin on the table. To hell with his boss if he thinks that he is overreacting. Kind? Kind? What does he think of the homoual community? Animals? "Talk to me when you've grown up enough to know what an apology is." And he storms off, feeling just as angry as how he felt back in Minho's office.

 

When Taemin reaches the sidewalk, he feels relieved to have finally escaped the restaurant's stiff atmosphere and his boss's arrogant presence. But then he hears quick, heavy footsteps behind him with his boss's voice shouting, "Taemin, wait!" again and again, and he forces himself to walk faster until he is finally running. He rubs his eyes with his sleeved forearm as he runs, realizing that tears were running down his cheeks.

 

He thought that he had already experienced enough verbal abuse in the past not to be hurt when he is called names and insults, but it seems that he was wrong. The gravity of Minho's words from the week before and today finally hit him, and he unconsciously keeps running faster until all he can hear is his footsteps patting against the concrete in the dark silence of the night. He doesn't notice that Minho has caught up to him until he hears Minho's loud voice again, but with different words coming out from his mouth.

 

"I'M SORRY, OKAY?"

 

Those words bring Taemin's legs to a slow stop. He did not expect to hear those words coming from his boss's lips. When he had told Amber about the whole incident, the woman told him not to expect any kind of apology from Minho, because 'the big boss never apologizes to anyone. Ever.' -- her exact words. She said that Minho thought too highly of himself to acknowledge his mistakes. She said that when he does commit mistakes, he usually just brushes it off and leaves his subordinates to deal with the mess he left behind. So upon hearing those three words, Taemin is too stunned to keep running. But he does not look back. He only stares straight ahead at the dark street in front of him until he feels Minho's hand on his shoulder, turning him around roughly.

 

Minho pants while breathing out, "F-Finally... I can't believe you had me chasing after you like that..." For a moment, Minho loses his ability to speak, not because of the lack of air in his lungs from all that running, but because of the endless flow of tears running down Taemin's face.

 

"Y-Yah. What's the matter?" Minho is still trying to catch his breath, but he does not let go of Taemin's shoulder, for fear that the boy will start running again. But the brunette just stays still, shaking his head, his ponytail swinging along lazily with it."

 

"I'm fine." The elder notices that the younger is trying his best to keep his voice controlled as he speaks through his quiet whimpering, "Just say what you have to say so I can take my leave." Minho nods, deciding that even though they are awkwardly standing in the middle of a lonely, quiet street at 10 in the evening, this is as good a time as any to finally get things back to normal again.

 

"Look at me." He tries to get the boy to follow this simple request because he wants to make sure that his apology does not meet deaf ears and that Taemin is listening to him word for word. Taemin wips his eyes with his forearm again before he warily looks into Minho's eyes.

 

"For everything, for the way I've treated you, for the things I've said... I'm sorry." After he mumbles out the last two words, he finds himself unable to look back into the boy's eyes. This apologizing thing is a brand new experience for him, and so far, he doesn't find himself enjoying it. But he continues, "I know I've been an , but,"

 

"Yeah, you have."

 

"BUT, I've never really been called out on it before, so I guess I've just gotten used to just blurting out whatever it is that's on my mind. And I know that that's still no excuse for the way I've been acting, so.... mianhaeyo*." He cautiously looks up to Taemin who is now curiously looking up at him, and not receiving a reply, he gets straight to the point of this whole apology.

 

"I'm sorry for everything... and I hope that things will go back to normal again. Things have been really difficult at the office ever since you got angry at me, and I swear I'm going to blow my top if things between us keep going the way they are now." Minho is quite embarrassed to be admitting this, practically declaring his own incompetency to his assistant. He feels even more humiliated when he sees the smirk on Taemin's face, the evidence of tears all gone, but the tell-tale signs of puffy eyes still present.

 

"So this is what this is about? So that you can go back to being a lazy- and dumping all the work on me?" There is a tinge of amusement in Taemin's voice, and Minho almost falls down to his knees when he recognizes the teasing tone in the brunette's statement. 

 

"Hey," The elder decides to play along, the atmosphere already lightening up just a little, "that's the best you're going to get out of me."

 

The brunette rolls swollen eyes and breathes out, "I guess that'll have to suffice," before turning around and starting to walk away. His ponytail sways along with him as he walks, and Minho finds himself fascinated by its delicate movement.

 

"Where are you going?" he asks, after he is done creepily inspecting Taemin's hair.

 

The brunette shouts over his shoulder a quick reply, "Home." Minho looks around at their surroundings, peeved by the darkness of the hidden alleys and deserted streets. Before he can stop himself, he shouts back at the boy, "I'll drive you!"

 

AGAIN, what the hell are you doing, Choi?

 

He tries to reason with the voice inside his head, I wouldn't want to get my assistant kidnapped or just after I got him to agree to work efficiently with me again, right?"

 

Yeah right, keep telling yourself that. He tells his conscience to just shut up so he can hear Taemin's upcoming response.

 

"Thanks, but no thanks." Taemin turns around to look at Minho, having already walked a few feet ahead of the man and shouts, "After everything that's happened, the last thing I need is a ride in a stuffy car with a stuffy bastard." The smirk in his voice and on his face are very apparent. Minho decides to retaliate. 

 

"Then can you at least deal with a walk with a stuffy bastard?" He stuffs his hands in his coat's pockets and chuckles when Taemin tilts his head in question.

 

"What about your car?"

 

"Shindong can take care of it."

 

 

 

They quietly walk by the streetlights dimly illuminating the apartments by lining the sidewalk. They have been walking in an awkward silence for quite some time now, and Minho is starting to wonder why he even came up with the brilliant idea of walking with Taemin to his home. But then he realizes that a question had been lingering in his head since the day they met, and he figures that it wouldn't hurt to ask.

 

"Hey," He looks over at Taemin who is busy admiring the countless stars in the dark sky above them. Minho is about to call for Taemin again because he thinks that the boy didn't hear him due to the lack of response, but he forgets about it because Taemin eventually looks into Minho's eyes with a 'Hm?'

 

Minho kicks at the pebbles on the ground as he walks, beginning to feel unsure if it is okay to ask the question. But then he hears Taemin urging him with a 'What is it?' so he just goes for it.

 

"Why do you hate me so much?"

 

For the second time that evening, Taemin stops in his tracks. After a few steps, Minho stops as well and looks back at Taemin. His head is lowered and his fringe is covering his eyes, making it hard for Minho to read his expression. But then he suddenly smiles up at Minho and says,

 

"You remind me of every person that I hated as a child, as a teenager, and as an adult."

 

Needless to say, the elder was shocked. Not only at the bluntless of Taemin's statement, but also of the fake cheerfulness in the way the boy said it. He doesn't say anything anymore, because really, what was he supposed to reply to that?

 

When they finally reach Taemin's rather luxurious loft, they stand in front of each other, ready to bid their awkward good byes. They both have their hands in their coat pockets, trying to keep warm from the cold temperature of the night. Taemin begins to speak.

 

"When Monday comes around, I'll go back to being your helpful and loyal assistant... But I think you should know that I still haven't forgiven you." He gazes up at Minho after he says this, trying to look for any signs of anger from the elder. But he is surprised when the elder does not get angry, and instead smiles down at him. 

 

"I know. I'm just glad to have my slave back."

 

"What?"

 

"Assistant. I said assistant."

 

Taemin huffs up at Minho, but doesn't say anything anymore. From all that's happened, he does not have any more energy to admonish his boss. He decides to just save it for another day. He stomps up the building's stairs and as the valet opens the entrance door for him, he turns around to Minho.

 

"I hope you get run over by a truck on your way home, sir."

 

"Good night to you too."