"Oh Kyungsoo, this is Wu YiFan from the Beijing office. He'll be working here for a couple weeks on a cross-border deal. One of your youngest partners--you could learn a lot from this guy. Kyungsoo's a first year, fresh out of law school."

"Ah! Nice to meet you! I'm Do Kyungsoo."

"Ha ha, no need to be so nervous." A deep voice, pleasant and soothing, kind yet confident. The kind of voice a client would trust. "I go by Kris. Very nice to meet you."

Kyungsoo slips his small hand into Kris's larger one and tries his best to effect the firm handshake that he'd been taught. He smiles hesitantly at the giant of a man. Kris smiles back. Kyungsoo's heart races, almost against his will. Is it his imagination or is Kris holding on longer than proper? And if he is, what would that even mean? 

"Well, I'd better introduce you to the rest of the team. Maybe Kyungsoo could join us for lunch some time," Ryeowook suggests kindly.

Kris lets go of Kyungsoo's hand and says, "Yes, please do. I'd like that." As he walks away with Ryeowook, he turns around and flashes another smile at Kyungsoo. Kyungsoo feels weak in the knees.

"Kyungsoo, wait up."

"Ah, Kris-sunbaenim!"

Kyungsoo pauses in his footsteps and waits for Kris to catch up. The taller man is by his side in a few long strides, and they walk companionably among the throngs of people.

"Seoul really is a city that never sleeps. It's almost midnight on a Tuesday."

"Isn't Beijing as well?" Kyungsoo asks curiously.

"Surprisingly, not so much," Kris muses. "Or at least, not around the office. That part of the city pretty much clears out at night, not like here."

"Oh. It must be strange then."

"What must be strange?"

"Living in Seoul, I guess. Where it's so different from home?"

"Not at all. I studied here when I was younger, so it's not too strange. And I used to live in Canada, where it's very much more different. Oh, and I'm not from Beijing anyway."

"You're not?"

Kris peers down at Kyungsoo's small face, eyes wide with surprise, plump lips slightly parted. He hesitates for a moment, then says. "Say, we don't actually know much about each other, do we? Even though it's been two weeks already." Two weeks of stolen glances, of brushing past one another but not quite touching, of curiosity and suggestions and questions without answers.

"I...I guess not."

"Look, do you want to...get a drink somewhere?"

"Eh?"

"I mean, I know it's late and we both have work tomorrow, but I'd just like to get to know you some more."

"Oh." 

"No pressure."

"No-no...I mean..." a tentative smile. "I mean, I'd like that too."

When Kyungsoo wakes up again, he's in a soft bed with white sheets. Kris's arm dangles across his chest, tucking him snuggly against the bigger man's chest. Kyungsoo likes to think it's an unconscious act of possession. Something to compensate for Kris's purposeful distance in the daylight, something to show that the distance really is all pretense, that Kris isn't slowly slipping away from him before they've really even built anything together, that his move to Beijing isn't stupid, that they have a future, that...

...but then Kyungsoo realizes that Kris has been awake all along, that the arm wasn't unconscious at all, and he begins to wonder what reality is buried under the calculations. He feels the urge to break free.

"How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine. Well, a bit nervous, but mostly fine." 

Kyungsoo likes Yixing. The man's older, an experienced senior associate already, but he has that gentle and humble aura that reminds Kyungsoo of Ryeowook and Kyungsoo is thankful for this.

Today, Yixing takes Kyungsoo to an on-sight client meeting. The client, a high-end Korean cosmetics brand, is riding atop the Hallyu wave in China and is enlisting lawfirms to help it go public on the Shanghai stock exchange. Yixing, though fluent in Korean, thought that Kyungsoo's presence might help him with the cultural aspects of the pitch.

"And anyway, it'll be good exposure for you. Don't worry too much. All associates go through this," Yixing says comfortingly as they're led into the meeting room. Kyungsoo nods in agreement, though his heart was pounding furiously. Verbal interaction had never been his forte. 

The company's management is already seated around the oblong the conference table. For the most part, they look the part of an established company's board--elderly gentlemen, some with bald patches, others with mildly protruding stomachs...

But then at the head of the table, one stood out...

"Kim Jongin, he's the founder of the company."

"Oh, but he looks so young!"

"Well, his father's rich, founded one of Korea's preeminent electronic companies. But Kim Jongin's not useless either. He really took advantage of his father's wealth--got a degree at Harvard, came back to Korea, snatched up this cosmetics company for cheap and turned it around."

"Sounds like an intimidating guy."

"Sure is."

As Yixing gave the company's pitch, Kyungsoo stood by anxiously, ready to chime in at a moment's notice. Yet at the periphery of his vision, he thought he caught sight of Kim Jongin's gaze directed straight at him, piercing in its intensity.