The weather was awful, he’s short of staff and Byunghun was running fever, give him a thousand won and he still would never let Byunghun out in the horrible rain with his skeletal sickly body to do his usual delivery duty.

Cafe DaNi did not take any delivery that day with exception of Ricky. Ricky was his regular customer and he’s a sweetheart. Niel would not let such a sweetheart suffer from his ‘pain in the ’ boss (if he to directly quote what Ricky had described his employer to be) because apparently Niel's coffee was Mr.Choi’s antidote and his pastries were Mr.Choi ‘s happy pills (though Niel thought Ricky was exaggerating and Mr.Choi was just some angry middle age man with sweet teeth who also happened to be a  caffeine addict) that capable of preventing the aforementioned employer from going ‘berserk’ all the time.

To think again, poor Ricky had a quiet terrifying boss. He had been working for many people before and horrible bosses were the worst nightmare ever.

Ricky's workplace was just across the street so Niel figured it won’t be that difficult to deliver the breakfast, plus he had this huge blue umbrella that would shield him from the rain. Except, he was totally wrong and the journey across the street was an outright struggle.

The wind was awfully strong and his supposedly reliable huge blue umbrella kept trying to sweep him off his feet and drifted him away with the wind up to the skyloft somewhere in the sky. During this time, Niel wished he was ten times heavier than his current weight. His thin body could someday be the death of him.

By the time he arrived at the main entrance of Choi & Co. he was totally drenched and his sneakers were soaked with water. However, with his vigilant effort his delivery bag was fortunately safe from a single drop of water (okay maybe that was a little bit of hyperbole, the bag might be a little wet but the contents inside it were safe and that’s the main point). The lady behind the service counter could not help but to give him the stink eyes and Niel could only smiled sheepishly at her.

Shaking off the water from his umbrella and after some futile attempt of rearranging his hair, Niel made his way to the elevator, hoping that he could hand the delivery bag to Ricky as quickly as possible and praying that he would not come across with Mr. Choi or he might get yelled out of the building for dripping water on his precious floor. He hadn’t met the guy yet but with how Ricky had describe his boss, being yelled at was the best prediction that was the least threatening he could imagine.

 ~~~

The office was busy with the normal morning buzz while the occupants still finding the bearing to settle down into their usual working pace. There were the dings of the elevators, scrape of chairs on the carpeted floor, hustle of papers and files and all the pitter patter of the staffs moving around, busy like ever with their morning routine. Muting down the outside rackets, Jonghyun sat behind his desk in the solitary of his room, humming out some random tune while rereading one of the submitted paper works. Tapping his fingers on the surface of the desk, Jonghyun stole a glance to his wristwatch.

 8.46 am, it read.

Jonghyun let out a long suffering sigh, his coffee was late today.

Jonghyun cannot function properly without his dosage of caffeine, like lubricant to a rusty old machine, coffee is his antidote. Preferably the one that Ricky always get him from a particular café down the street. Their delivery boy would normally come at 8.30 am, bearing cups of goodness of caffeine and savory fresh baked pastries, their blueberry danish is Jonghyun’s all time favourite.  Jonghyun would know when his breakfast arrived because every time they did, he could hear Ricky’s excited squeal of “L.joe!”  Even from the safety of his closed door.

Maybe because it was raining pretty heavily, that thin twig, L.Joe, might been swept away by running water and stuck in a drain somewhere with Jonghyun’s precious coffee and danish. Jonghyun huffed out a heavy breath and closed the file in his hands.

He might need to resolve to any coffee available in their pantry, figured that he could ask his assistant to make him one. He knew it would turn out to be crappy piece of which was far cry from his daily delivered triple shots espresso, but it was better option than no caffeine at all.

Without his dosage of caffeine he would become cranky too, and nobody likes cranky Jonghyun. Cranky Jonghyun is a time bomb that would go out randomly and the results are always severe. Last time it happen resulting in the absence of the unfortunate staff for four days, rumors said he was too afraid to come to work, Jonghyun might yell at him (and he might had cursed too) and maybe some files went flying, Jonghyun couldn’t quite recall. He’s quite famous for his temper and anyone can guess where it comes from if they ever come across Mr. Choi Senior. Both of them are walking nightmare of every Choi &Co.'s staffs and no one dares to complain. Besides, if the staff had been absent without a legitimate reason, that was just as well as playing truant and Jonghyun would never let his staff slacking off because of some petty basis. Soon enough the staff was found to be demoted to a lower department.

In business world, there was no such thing as mercy.

Leaving the safety of his private office, Jonghyun make his walk to find his ever so vibrant assistant. He’s not that difficult to locate, if you could find the source of noisy (though there was obvious effort to hush it down) whispers chit chatting on office shenanigans, well, you definitely could locate Ricky. The shorty assistant of his might need some reprimands for his unhealthy gossiping habit and Jonghyun made a mental note to do so once he find that sneaky little bastard.

Before Jonghyun could call out his assistant, the elevator dings and the office was swept with scrumptious coffee aroma. Jonghyun almost snap his neck in his excitement looking for the source of the smell only to land his eyes on a lean young man.

He’s all tall and long limbs and he had a dripping huge blue umbrella in his hand and a large bag presumably containing load of coffee and pastries securely in his other hand which were supposedly made him look scrawny, gangly and awkward. Instead, the way he breezed out of the elevator was all grace and poise, with his damp shirt conveniently sticking to his lean figure and messy wet hair, Jonghyun could not help but to think that, that man was definitely gorgeous!

“Niel!” Ricky chirped cheerfully.

And sue him if he saw moon when Niel smiled.

~~~

Niel let out a huff of laugh at Ricky’s antic who enthusiastically waving at him from his working cubicle. Put him anywhere, Ricky would always be a vibrant ball of happiness. Niel lifted up the bag he was holding and wiggled it to show Ricky the goodness he brought with him.

“Sorry I’m late.” He said apologetically.

“Oh my God, Niel! You are life saver!” Ricky bounced to take the bag from Niel and before the guy managed to pull him into a bear hug, Niel put both of his hands in between them.

“Woopsie… if you fail to notice I’m kinda dripping here. We don’t want to soak that handsome outfit of yours don’t we?” Niel teased and Ricky rolled his eyes.

“What happen to you? You are drenched.” Ricky said matter of factly while giving him a pity look before hastily went to get a clean small towel from his drawer which Niel thankfully accepted to wipe the droplets of water running down his face and neck. Honestly, he was freezing.

“It’s pouring outside, duh!” he simply said.

“That giant umbrella really had done crappy job in shielding our Niel from the rain isn’t it?” Ricky stared accursedly at the said umbrella.

“Well, at least your breakfast still in one piece thanks to this crappy umbrella and definitely save your from your boss who might impulsively went ‘berserk’ if he don’t get my magic touch anytime soon.” Niel shrugged with a cheeky smile.

Ricky shivered visibly at the mental image of his raging employer.  “and for that I owe you hundreds of hugs.” He said after considering for a few seconds.

“Nah, save it for your girlfriend or something. I really appreciate the sentiment but no thanks buddy.” Niel scrunched up his nose. “I better get going. Don’t wanna let your boss catch me wetting his floor, don't we? I still want all my limbs intact.” Niel said while folding the towel in his hand. He will make sure Ricky get a clean one tomorrow. When he lifted his head to look at the shorter guy, he saw Ricky’s face was filled with horror.

'Huh?'

“Why would meeting me be the demise of your limbs?”

Said a voice from his back.

“Excuse me?” when Niel turned around, his eyes met with a handsome young lad, clad in fitting expensive looking suit, a silk tie which probably cost more than the whole attires Niel wearing today, with hair so trimmed that it would put hair gel models to shame, damn he could put everyone to shame. Niel could feel the contrast between them so instant that it was sickening.

“Choi Jonghyun.” The man introduced himself, a confident smile was plastered on his face and a hand was stretched for a shake.

It took Niel a few seconds to take in the name.

Choi Jonghyun.

Jonghyun.

CHOI JONGHYUN?

That Mr.CHOI??!' 

Wasn’t Mr. Choi supposed to be some angry middle age man with sweet teeth who also happened to be a caffeine addict?

Or was that just Niel’s very own imagination?

Either way, Mr. Choi was the last person he want to meet.

Ahn Daniel pretty sure that he was screwed.

tbc.

~~~~~~~~~~

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