“Excuse me Joonmyun, but the head accountant is here to see you.”

“Oh okay thanks Jongdae send him in.”

Jongdae nods and steps aside for the man standing behind him to walk in. He walks up to Joonmyun’s desk and bows. “Hello Mr. Kim, I’m Do Kyungsoo, co-head accountant.”

Joonmyun raises his eyebrow as he gathers some papers on his desk. “Co?” He stands up from his desk and gestures to the small sitting area near the center of his office before heading over there, settling himself on a contemporary white couch.

“Yes co.” Kyungsoo confirms before realizing he was still standing and quickly takes a seat across from the other.

“And please, just call me Joonmyun. Mr. Kim is my father.”

“Oh, speaking of which, he was the one who decided that there would be two heads of accounting. He couldn’t choose between me and another guy so he decided that we both deserved the job. Which, if you think about it, is very generous of him. Usually CEO’s are ruthless and cut-throat, but Mr. Kim genuinely seems like a decent man who isn’t power and money hungry, but I’m sure you know all about that because—“ Joonmyun’s slight cough interrupts him. “Oh I’m sorry, I’m babbling aren’t. Sorry. Let’s just get back to business.”

“Please.” Joonmyun’s tone was a little stern, which causes Kyungsoo to sink back into his seat a bit.

“Right. I’m here to go over monthly expense report with you.  If that’s not too much trouble.” He adds at the end to hopefully make up for his mindless talking.

“That’s the reason why you’re here.” Joonmyun says crossing his legs, leaning back a bit.

Kyungsoo sighs and thinks that maybe this apple fell very far from the tree.

After half an hour of going over numbers, Kyungsoo gathers his papers and starts makes his leave, with Joonmyun walking him out.  “Okay Mr. Kim—I mean Joonmyun, everything checks out. So I’ll see you next month.”

“Till next month.” Joonmyun says nodding.

Once Kyungsoo is around the corner and out of view, Jongdae gets up from his desk and steps over to the older. “I’m going to like working here. Who knew working at a fashion magazine you get to see all these cute boys walking around.  Even the accountants are adorable.“

Joonmyun glances over with judging eyes before smacking Jongdae on the back of the head. “Get back to work.”

Jongdae flinches before rubbing the back of his head in exaggerated pain. “Yes sir, Editor-in-chief.” Jongdae says through his teeth.

“That’s Mr. Editor-in-chief to you!” Joonmyun yells behind him before closing the door.

It has been only a month since Joonmyun accepted the job from his father to become the Editor-in-chief of one of the hottest and best fashion magazines in all of South Korea, Fade. Some would say that nepotism was involved, but Joonmyun believes that he had worked hard before gaining the position. He had worked as editor-in-chief for 3 lesser known magazines before and shaped all of them to become not so lesser known.

Once the editor-in-chief of Fade had resigned, his father believed that it was best that Joonmyun take over so that he would be closer to the family business and under J-Kim publications. It was hard to argue with his father so he agreed and brought his assistant of seven years along with him, Kim Jongdae, who had always dreamed of working at a fashion magazine.

In contrast, Joonmyun didn’t have the first clue about fashion. Sure he could dress himself to look good, but he wasn’t sure as to the top designers, what colors were in season, and definitely did not have and eye for all of it so he wondered why his father threw him into a position where he would have a difficult time. But in the short month that he’s been there, he seems to have gotten the hang of mostly everything. Despite all of that, his first issue went out without a hitch so he’s hoping that it is foreshadowing future issues to come.

“Joonmyun, the models are here.” Jongdae says popping his head into the office.

A smirk spreads across his face. “My favorite part of this job. Send them in.”

----

Kyungsoo leaves Joonmyun’s office and finishes with everyone’s expense report from Fade before heading back down to the 18^th floor where the accounting offices are.

“How was your trip up to the 28^th floor?” Baekhyun asks as soon as he gets off the elevator.” Or what I like to call it.” He hold his hands up and does a motion where he spreads his hands apart as if the words will appear in midair. “Hell.”

“It wasn’t that bad.” Kyungsoo say as they walk towards their offices. Baekhyun gives him a ‘are you serious’ look. “Okay it was that bad. Seriously, everyone there is either a stick with legs, or trying out to become a pole. Not to mention everyone there is pretty much a stuck-up pretentious . Now I understand why you made me go alone.”

“I went up there sometime last year, and it .” Baekhyun said as they reached his office.

“And you made me go? Do you find joy in my pain?” Kyungsoo says in a defeated tone.

Baekhyun shrugs as he sits down behind his desk. “A little. But Mr. Kim insisted that one of us go and do the expense reports for Fade. Considering that the magazine is one of the best and brings in the most money for J-Kim Publications, he didn’t want to hand off the job to some low accountant. It’s like a compliment. We’re so good that he trusts us, but it’s like feeding us to sharks.”

“Yeah skinny, never-eaten-before sharks.” Kyungsoo mocks.

“Oh what about the new editor-in-chief? How was he? He’s Mr. Kim’s son right?”

“Oh yeah Joonmyun.” Kyungsoo reflects back on his meeting with him. “He was alright, I guess. He seemed kind of intimidating. I guess it comes with the territory.”

“I’m glad Mr. Kim decided on two head of accounting. Otherwise, it’d be me wanting to go kill myself every month.”

“No, no. You’re going next month.” Kyungsoo said sternly before getting up and walking towards the door.

“Actually… I already told Mr. Kim that you’d be handling Fade’s account from here on forward so… that’s all you buddy.”

Kyungsoo turns around and glares at his co-worker. “What did you just say?”

“Don’t give me that look! He just so happened to ask who was doing the Fade accounts and I just so happened mentioned you. So then he said that, and I quote, “I’m glad Kyungsoo will be working with Fade from now on.” So I assume that just means for now until forever.”

“ you. You’re the worst.” Kyungsoo says rolling his eyes.

“Yeah well, I’m sure something good will come out of this.” Baekhyun says shrugging as he turns to computer and continues to work.

Kyungsoo scoffs because he’s pretty sure nothing good will come out of it.

----

A month slowly goes by as Kyungsoo works as the main accountant working on the Fade accounts, making sure that every penny is in place and that nothing is too out of the ordinary.

After going over some numbers a few times, he finds something a little off about the numbers and it doesn’t seem to be adding up correctly. He runs it again, just to double check his math, but yet the numbers do not add up.

“Hey Baekhyun, these numbers don’t seem to add up, do you want to check them for me?” Kyungsoo says hollering over to Baekhyun across their office.

“Ah, of course you need my help.” Baekhyun says chuckling.

“Yah! That’s not it. These numbers just don’t add up. Can you just look at it and not be an ?”

“Alright Alright. Send it over and I’ll take a look at it.”

It doesn’t take long for Baekhyun to run through the numbers and realize that Kyungsoo was right. They didn’t add up. “That’s really strange.”

“See? I’m not incompetent.”  Kyungsoo says with a huff.

Baekhyun rolls his eyes. “Some may beg to differ, but I digress.  This seems like a serious problem Kynugsoo. There’s 20,000 dollars missing and that’s a very obvious gap that would be in the financial records. I suggest you go up to the 28^th floor and find out what’s going on.”

Kyungsoo groans because he was afraid of that. It was bad enough that he had to go up there every month to go over expense reports with Joonmyun, who honestly seemed to hate his guts, but now he has to bring this problem up to him which in then turn will probably yell at him for accusing him of stealing money from the company; his father’s company no less. This wasn’t what Kyungsoo signed up for. “Do I have to?” He whines to his co-head.

“Of course you do, I’m not in charge of the Fade accounts. You are. And as head accountant, it’s your duty to get to the bottom of this and figure out where the missing money is.”

“You’re head accountant also…”

“But you’re the one who found the problem, so I think it’s fitting for you to find the solution.” Baekhyun says cheekily.

Kyungsoo groans again and decides it’s time to enter the tiger’s den.

His hands are sweaty and his heart is pumping fast as he rides the elevator up to the Fade floor. He rehearses how he is going to bring up the topic of the missing money in his head but all that comes up in his head is the fear of being fired. The elevator dings causing him to jump a little. He’s not sure if he’s ready for this.

He arrives in front of Joonmyun’s office to be greeted by his secretary, Jongdae. “Hi, how can I help you?”

Kyungsoo gulps and takes a deep breath before speaking. “I’m here to see Mr. Kim. I mean Joonmyun. I mean Mr. Kim.” If it wasn’t obvious enough that he was nervous, it doesn’t seem like he can form complete sentences either.

“And you are…” Jongdae looks at him with a questioning eye as he filed his nails.

“Oh, I’m Do Kyungsoo from accounting.” He says sheepishly.

Jongdae sits up in his chair. “Oh right, the cutie boy who does math.” Kyungsoo blushes at the compliment and is unsure as to how to take it. “Well bossman is in a meeting right now as you can see.” Kyungsoo glances past Jongdae’s desk and through the glass walls to see that Joonmyun was currently having a conversation with tall looking fellow. “But it should be ending soon so if you want, you can take a seat over there.” Jongdae points with the end of his nail file to a couch in the room.

Kyungsoo bows slightly before taking a seat with papers in hand. As the minutes tick by, he gets more and more nervous and his thoughts get jumbled. He’s caught by surprise when the door opens and the two figures come through.

“Don’t worry, if you want this spread to be amazing, just leave it to me.” The taller man had said to Joonmyun as he extends a hand.

“I knew I could count on you Kris.” Joonmyun said gripping the extended hand.

“Oh, are you seeing anyone? Jessica has been nagging me to invite you and your significant other over for dinner.”

“Am I not enough for her?” Joonmyun says jokingly. “Kidding. But with running this magazine and all, I don’t have time to date so I guess if we do have dinner, she’s going to have to settle with just me.”

Kris pats Joonmyun on the back. “I’ll let the Mrs. Know. Catch you later.”

As Kris makes his leave, Jongdae waves his nail file at Joonmyun. “You have a visitor.” He says pointing to Kyungsoo sitting on the couch.

He immediately stands up and bows. “Hello Mr. Kim.”

“Ah, you’re the accountant. What did I say about calling me Mr. Kim? It’s Joonmyun. But please, come in.” He says gesturing for Kyungsoo to step into his office. Kyungsoo does so and enters first with Joonmyun right behind him. He quickly takes a seat as Joonmyun tails behind. “So what brings you up to the 28^th floor? The monthly expense report isn’t due till next week.” He says as he takes a seat across of Kyungsoo.

“Ah well…” Kyungsoo gulps hard, feeling words getting stuck in his throat. “I was running some numbers and…” He can definitely feel that he’s going to get fired on the spot. “There’s something off…”

“Oh?” Joonmyun raises his eyebrow and Kyungsoo unconsciously flinches. “And what is that?” Joonmyun’s tone doesn’t carry a hint of surprise or actual questioning.

“You see… there is 20,000 dollars missing from the accounts and… I’m not too sure where that money is.”

Joonmyun sighs and Kyungsoo can almost foresee himself looking through the classified ads for a new job.

“I’ve been caught.”

Kyungsoo eyes widen in surprise. “Huh?”

Joonmyun chuckles and sits up in his seat a little more. “You see, the other day I was out shopping for Christmas presents for my parents and I had left my personal wallet at home. Not wanting to miss the opportunity, I bought their gifts using the company card. I had every intention of paying the money back. I’m kind of surprised that you caught it so soon though. I’m impressed.” Joonmyun stands up and heads over to his desk to pull out a checkbook from the top drawer.

Kyungsoo is still sitting on the couch a little confused as to what happened. Although he is relieved that it was all just a misunderstanding and he isn’t getting fired. “Ah yes…”

Joonmyun finishes writing a check for 20,000 dollars and hands it over to Kyungsoo, “Here you go. Now there shouldn’t be any problem with the accounts, right?”

Kyungsoo nods as he takes the check from him and stands up to make his leave.

“Speaking of Christmas, the company’s Christmas party is next week. I assume you’ll be there?” Joonmyun says as he walks Kyungsoo out of his office.

“Ah, probably not. Parties are not really my thing.”

“Oh come on, you have to go. You’re head of accounting, you have to make an appearance.”

Kyungsoo rubs his arms because he really hates parties but he can’t just say no to someone as high ranked as the editor-in-chief of the best magazine out there. “I suppose I could make an appearance.” Kyungsoo says shyly.

“Great, I’ll see you there.” Joonmyun says with a smile. Kyungsoo bows and heads off to the elevators and away from the floor of sticks.

“Ah, I see you Kim Joonmyun.” Jongdae says speaking up.

“See me what?”

“I just didn’t know you rolled that way.” Jongdae ignores Joonmyun’s words and continues to talk.

“Rolled what way?” Joonmyun asked confused.

“And after all the years I’ve known you…”

“Yah. What are you even talking about?”

Jongdae looks over at his boss and just smiles. “Oh nothing. I’m just thinking how much fun this Christmas party will be.” He turns back to his computer and starts to type away.

Joonmyun scratches his head confused but decides to ignore it. Working with Jongdae for so long, this wasn’t even remotely close to the weirdest thing he has ever said.

comments, suggestions, critiques?

oh and hi all you lovely people <3