The hallways were stuffy, the work was burdening, my feet were killing me, and would someone please remind me why I’m wearing heels again? Oh yeah, to look good. Seriously I hate this, I feel too frustrated to continue walking. But I can’t stop now, my office, my heaven, it’s just a few steps away.

 

I could almost feel the angry, cold stares I was getting from the female staff who are known to like Baekhyun too much, and the hungry ones of the male staff, who had found pleasure in watching me walk everyday with my rather short attire.

 

It wasn’t my fault though, I can’t afford to be out of fashion just to look descent, right? That sounded cheap! Let me rephrase that…

 

I can’t afford to look out of fashion. Period.

 

The problem is, being a manager of one of the most famous models in Asia has its perks and disadvantages. The perks are, well, getting my own office, having tons of money even when I’m still only 24 years old, and already having enough to buy myself another BMW.

Yes, I’m 24 and I have one already, and no I didn’t steal it, or borrow it from my parents, it was the company’s gift for me, for being one of the best managers they had. (And also for being the CEO’s best friend, but let's not get into details.)

 

I focused on my steps, my heels clicking harshly on the floor, I was only a few steps away, I can see my huge, wooden door, the metal door knob reflecting light in the most beautiful way and seeming like a bright star decorating the hallway. I could almost feel the fresh air of my AC.

 

My fingertips made contact with the cold metal, I twisted it with a tired smile on my face, and pushed the door as it opened, I could see my chair, and…

 

OH HELL NO…

 

The moment I stepped inside the spacious, magnificent office of mine, I was met with my worst nightmare. Oh My God, he was sitting on my chair.

MY CHAIR!!!

 

“Good morning gorgeous…” UGH, his sickening smirk, his hideously gorgeous hair, his terrifying height, everything about him makes me sick. Not to mention his beautifully deep voice, sometimes it reminds me of chocolate.

I HATE chocolate.

 

“It’s 3 in the afternoon…” I answered monotonously as I walked to my desk, ready to shove my fist in his face, because nobody but me is allowed to sit on my chair.

 

“Oh…” His smirk fell for a second, but it came back sooner than I expected.

 

“Good afternoon then, gorgeous…”

 

“Stop calling me Gorgeous, Chanyeol, I just ate and I might get sick…”

 

“Be sure to throw up else were then…”

 

Smart !

 

 

He stood up and left my chair, I sat down and turned around to face the window at the back of my desk. I leaned back and exhaled deeply, feeling eyes boring at my face, but trying to ignore them.

 

“If you’re done tormenting me for the day, how about making your way out of here…”

 

 

“Are you kicking me out?” I heard him answer back, his voice a bit far away now. I turned to look for him and found him sitting at the reception area of my room. So I chose to ignore him, at least I could take off my heels and enjoy the cool air.

 

 

“Baekhyun wants us at 3:15… meeting…”

 

 

“Why...?” I asked indifferently, keeping my eyes closed.

 

 

“He said something about a new photo-shoot for Sehun… and some news broke out about Chen and Luhan… not interested to know what really…”

 

“And you call yourself their manager…” I scoffed.

 

“I’m their manager when they need me to be…”

 

 

Fair enough.

 

Silence broke in the room for some time, I enjoyed every bit of it, exhaling deeply, the corners of my lips slowly turning upwards, and at last I was getting some quiet time for myself.

But the silence was shortly enjoyed of course.

 

 

“I suggest you start dolling yourself up now…” I heard Chanyeol say, seemingly, he was still sitting were he was for his voice was a bit far away.

 

“What?” I answered indifferently.

 

“To look good for Baekhyun and all…”

 

My eyes snapped open, what did that just say to me?

 

 

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” I turned to look at him with a glare, and of course, his wide smirk was plastered on his stupid face. It’s really a waste that someone like him looks so gorgeous when he’s that evil and bad, and corrupted and all…

 

“We’ve been working together for 2 years, we’ve been in high school together for 3 years before that, and let’s mention the time you had been in college… a 24 year old girl, fairly good looking, and haven’t dated a man once without breaking up with him before even reaching second base…”

 

“So…” I shrugged, it happens, I haven’t found the right one yet, plus, I’m interested in my work, what’s wrong with that?

 

“So… It’s either you have the hots for me or for Baek… and since you hate me… it must be Baekhyun…” His smirk got weirder, and my heart was beating louder than normal, if I were standing now, I would’ve collapsed for sure. That is on to me.

 

“Get out!” I ordered sternly, he just crossed the line, hell, he jumped 10 meters past it. He looked straight into my eyes, I could feel him challenging me, before his stern glare eased up, and he faked a smile, got up, and slid both hands in his suit pockets.

Yes, Park Chanyeol actually wears suits to work, imagine the agony, it’s really hard to keep hating him when he looks like that. I deserve an award.

 

“Okay…”

 

Okay?

OKAY?

Why is THE PARK CHANYEOL giving up so easily?

 

 

I saw him flash a smile at me before turning around to leave my office, but something was wrong in that smile, it wasn’t that cocky one of his that I was used to, it was kind of…

How should I put it?

It was like Chanyeol was pitying me for some reason…

 

“Just… don’t be so obvious…”

 

With that, I heard the door close.

 

What was that supposed to mean? Sure everybody knows Baekhyun and I are close, and sure a lot of people envy me every day for being this close to him, but our relationship is purely professional, apart from the occasional friend dates we have, nothing can be detected between me and Baekhyun, like ever.

 

To the hell with him, I have a meeting to attend to.

 

 

 

 

  

“Their performance in Music Bank has been cancelled…”

 

“It was just a rumour, what the hell?”

 

“We should call the producer, clearly this is a misunderstanding…”

 

“Where the hell was their manager when this happened?!”

 

The room went quiet, all eyes were directed to the seat on my right. Chanyeol’s seat. The latter seemed out of it, only focusing on the screen of his phone as he read some kind of news that apparently had nothing to do with Chen and Luhan, and what angered me the most was, he chuckled. Chanyeol ing chuckled.

 

“Oh …” he kept laughing as everyone’s eyes were on him, I thought about nudging him, but I enjoyed watching the hateful stares he was getting.

 

Baekhyun cleared his throat, loud enough to capture Chanyeol’s attention. He looked up from his phone with innocent eyes that studied the faces of each one of us, he kept staring at all of us, putting his phone on the table, he cleared his throat out of embarrassment before leaning back in his chair.

 

“I think we finally gained Mr. Park's attention…” Baekhyun commented, glaring lightly at Chanyeol before looking down to the papers in front of him.

 

“Where were you yesterday Chanyeol?” Lay, the best choreographer in our company, directed his words to the latter. Chanyeol stared back at him with innocent, round eyes, trying to think of an excuse under this pressure.

I’m really enjoying this, seriously.

 

“I-uh…” he stuttered for a second, opening his mouth to speak, he was saved by Baekhyun.

 

“It doesn’t matter where he was, what’s important right now is finding a way to clear this mess up…”

 

I stared back at Baekhyun in admiration, always taking matters in his hands like the responsible man he is, how can he not be called one of the best CEOs in the entertainment world? Baekhyun never fails to impress me, his way of always dealing with heads and all…

 

Huh, such a Taurus, reminds me of myself sometimes, only better…

 

Chanyeol nodded, eyes falling to the table, Baekhyun let out a sigh then continued talking about Sehun’s photo-shoot that was scheduled for next week. I kept my eyes on him, but suddenly I realized that he seemed tensed, of course he should be, but it’s not normal for Baekhyun not to smile at least once, or try to tell all of us that everything’s going to be okay.

 

 

 

The meeting ended 15 minutes later. As I was collecting my stuff and preparing myself to leave, I felt Baekhyun grabbing my hand desperately. I turned to look at him in confusion, once he was sure everyone’s out, and that the door was closed, leaving only him, me and Chanyeol in the room, he pushed me to sit down, and sat on his own chair, glaring at Chanyeol.

 

 

“Done with your recklessness?” His tone was low and dangerous, I looked at Chanyeol who was staring back at him with no emotion evident on his face.

 

“AREN’T YOU DONE WITH YOUR YET???!!” He slammed his hands on the table, making me flinch in my seat out of surprise, Chanyeol closed his eyes and let out a silent sigh, massaging his temples, as he walked and sat down on the chair facing mine.

 

“How can you do this to me? Huh!! How can you be so stupid? So CARELESS???”

 

Baekhyun’s outrage was met by nothing but silent blinks and stares from both me and Chanyeol, he let out a sigh of frustration and buried his head in both his hands, prompting his elbows on the table, which was before the room fell in complete silence.

 

“I’m tired Chanyeol…” I heard him whisper, I turned to look at him again after I’ve been looking at Chanyeol in disgust and disappointment. Baekhyun didn’t raise his head, nor did he open his eyes, he just stayed like that, his voice barely a whisper, yet audible enough in this deafening silence.

 

“- I’m tired of always trying to keep you out of the blame… honestly, this is the first time I’ve actually considered firing you…”

 

“I didn’t mean to…”

 

“No Chanyeol… you didn’t mean to, but you let it happen, you let it happen, you put us in a ed up situation… and you know what… you’re gonna get us out of it, because I’m done cleaning up your for you…” He suddenly stood up, back firing Chanyeol like there was a lot of things he’s been wanting to say.

 

“This is it for me Chanyeol… no more helping you, no more standing up for you, you clean after yourself, because you know what? I’m actually tired, and I can’t ing take it anymore…”

 

Chanyeol stared back at him silently, at loss of words for the first time in 2 years. It wasn’t the first time that Chanyeol ed up something for the company, and the problem they fell in wasn’t so big to make Baekhyun react this way, it was the fact that Chanyeol never cared about ing up that tricked Baekhyun like so.

 

I could see it in his eyes, he was fed up, tired of going around, begging everyone to forgive Chanyeol for his stupidity. To think that Chanyeol is actually smart, then why the hell was he doing this? Why the hell was he acting so carelessly?

 

Baekhyun let out a long sigh, resting both hands on his sides as he closed his eyes to think for a bit, I could see Chanyeol’s eyes falling to the ground in guilt, before I heard Baekhyun speak once more, eyes on me.

 

 

 “-and Ji eun-ah…” His voice became low once more, his eyes desperate for help, almost as if dwelling up with tears, but I knew him too well, he was too strong to cry.

 

“Yes…”

 

“Go talk to them will you… if I saw one of them I think I’m gonna shove my precious fist somewhere uncomfortable for them…” He stood up, buttoned his blazer, smiling at me with that sweet smile of his, it must’ve been refreshing to scream at Chanyeol like that because he was now and walking outside the room like he had no care in the world, leaving both me and Chanyeol to stare at each other in confusion.

 

Typical Baekhyun and his sudden mood swings, it was like he had a trigger, to shut all the anger out and face the world with a smile, I never really knew if that smile of his was fake or not, but it seemed real to me, it was enough for me to see him smile.

 

 

 

 

“Luhan!”

 

I walked inside one of the dancing rooms where I supposedly thought that Luhan and Chen would be, practicing their choreography that God knows where they will be performing it now after the scandal.

 

I never really liked Luhan, or you could say, we never clicked, there was this obnoxious aura around him that made me avoid him most of the time.

 

Born April 20, Luhan had the strong aura of an Aries, an aura I learnt to dislike, but I had to say he wasn’t so bad for an Aries, he tried to be nice around me, respected me, and even though he was older than me, he acted like he was my dongsaeng, so I can’t say that I entirely hate him.

 

His partner, Chen, Virgo, born September 21^st, he’s a sweet heart to be honest. No just because a Virgo and a Taurus are compatible, but also because he has the sweetest, most heart-warming smile a person could ever see. He just captures your heart in an instant, he was known as a teddy bear to his fans, and everybody loved him to bits.

 

 

I found both of them breathless and on the floor, their backs rested on the wall sized mirror of the dancing room, their sleeveless shirts dampened in sweat, and their hair dripping. Luhan looked up at me from his position, giving me a small nod as a greeting, I smiled at him before my eyes drifted to his busted lip, then to his right eyebrow, that had a small cut right under it, still freshly red.

 

I bit my bottom lip before I looked at Chen, his left cheek was bruised slightly, but nothing more can be seen on him, he smiled widely at me before standing up and pulling me into a suffocating hug.

 

“Noona’s here!” He exclaimed, almost crushing my back bones, I chuckled breathlessly before pushing him away lightly.

 

“Get away from me, you smell like a pig!” I gave him a wide smile back, he laughed, his pearly white teeth glistening as they reflected the sunlight coming from the huge window to my right.

 

“No ! I feel like one as well…” The three of us laughed before Luhan stood up and walked to the bench right under the window, he grabbed a black towel and hung it on his neck, drying his face with its edge.

 

“Tell hyung we’re sorry we got in that fight… it won’t happen again…” He said quietly, eyes on the wooden floor beneath him, I smiled lightly at him before walking to sit next to him.

 

“Hey…” I whispered, he looked up at me, his eyes full of guilt and anger, I could tell he wasn’t comfortable with talking to anyone about it just yet, but I had to, the CEO’s orders.

 

“I’m sorry…”

 

“You don’t have to be… I’m sure you had your reasons…” I voiced out. “- Which, I would like to know, by the way…”

 

He chuckled before biting his lower lip to contain anymore chuckles, he breathed in deeply before straightening up in his seat and looking at me.

 

“You can say the bar tender wasn’t a gentleman…” He began, I raised an eyebrow in confusion.

 

 “We’re sorry we caused you guy’s trouble, but he was really, really rude Noona!” Chen then added, I nodded back, but I still needed details.

 

“What kinnda things did he say…?” I asked as I grabbed a bottle of water from Chen’s bag on my left, I put it to my lips and drank, still keeping my eyes on Luhan.

 

“That I was a ing with a nice and it must be really nice to have someone like Oh Sehun in the same company so we can all night long in the training rooms without anyone finding out…” Luhan quoted.

 

I spat all the water out in front of me, Chen jumped back to evade getting splashed, I gave him a small smile in apology then turned to look at Luhan with wide eyes.

 

“What the hell is wrong with that guy?!”

 

“Oh and then he asked Luhan to accompany him to the storage room to give him some…”

 

Chen then added with a smile. Yes, Chen was smiling, weird. I looked at Chen horrified, seriously, what was wrong with those people? It’s no wonder he beat the lights out of him, I mean, apart from being rude, that comment he made was practically inhumane to say to a person. 

I felt my face heating up so much out of embarrassment, I cleared my throat out  of discomfort then I heard the door to the room being opened, and in walked Chanyeol, cold, confident, like he wasn’t getting scolded in the CEO’s room a few minutes ago.

 

 “Mind telling me what happened?” He said as he walked to where we were sitting, his hands in his pockets like always, his hair a little dishevelled, and when he came to a close proximity I could see that he was feeling tired or distressed.

Park Chanyeol has feelings everyone!!

 

I stood up the moment Chen opened his mouth to explain, and covered his mouth with my hand and tried to explain the situation myself.

Chanyeol stared at me with a raised eyebrow and a cold stare, but I knew he was listening carefully. I intended not to say the last sentence the bartender said to Luhan, but absentmindedly, Chen had to say it in the end.

 

“- and then he asked Luhan to accompany him to the storage room to give him some…”

 

Chanyeol’s eyes widened at that, which was the first reaction he had given since this morning, he cleared his throat out of embarrassment, the same reaction I gave, and rubbed the back of his neck, eyes falling to his black, classic shoes.

 

“I think we should call someone, we could report him for harassing Luhan like that…”

 

“And expose ourselves to another scandal?” Chanyeol finally looked back at me, his eyes cold and accusing.

 

“What do you suggest, acting like nothing happened?” I fought back.

 

“I suppose, it’d be better than saying he got assaulted by someone for looking too gay, or girly… and the Oh Sehun part… Huh… that’d be an interesting conformation for the tabloids that Luhan actually is gay…” Chanyeol scoffed, he smirked at me when he managed to shut me up, looking one last time at both Luhan and Chen, and he turned around to walk out of the room, leaving like it was no big deal, while my blood was actually boiling.

 

“What – The actual ?” I breathed out suddenly, Luhan and Chen’s eyes widened at me as I balled my hands into tight fists. How could he be so cruel and immoral? The boy just got assaulted!

Chanyeol’s steps halted, I saw him slowly turn around and stare back at me like I just offended his parents or something.

 

“What did you say?” He looked angry, it’s not always that you see Chanyeol angry.

 

“I said…” I crossed my arms to my chest and stared back at him in disgust. “- What the actual ?”

I could see a glint in Chanyeol’s eyes, like something clicked, he stormed at me, grabbed my wrist harshly and ignored my protest, and then I felt myself being dragged out of the room with Chen and Luhan equally shocked as they stared at both of us. Sorry kids, grownup fights!

 

Chanyeol kept dragging me through the hallways, he eyes filled with anger and determination. I felt embarrassed as the staff watched me struggling to get out of his grip, but it was to no avail, who knew Chanyeol was this strong? I mean I could feel my wrists bruising under his hold already.

I saw Chanyeol’s office come in sight, in a few seconds, Chanyeol was already pushing the door open and dragging me in. He slammed his wooden door and slammed my back against it.

I stared up at him as he towered me, his eyes dark with anger and his breath hitching, Chanyeol was still holding my wrist, and I whimpered when his hold on it tightened (if that was even possible).

“I may put up with your ty comments when we're with Baekhyun all the time…” He started with a hoarse, dangerously low, deep tone, as he closed the distance between us, locking me with his body to the door.

I turned my face to the side as he leaned closer, his nose almost touching my left cheek. Swallowing hard I felt my eyes dwell with tears, partly from the pain, and partly because I was suddenly feeling afraid. Who knew what this ed up jerk would do to me?

“But to insult me in front of them… that, I can’t accept…” He breathed into my ear, making me flinch as my breath hitched.

 

“And I-I can’t accept– you hiding what ha-happened to Luhan…” I stuttered and struggled with my words, but the message was clear.

 

He stayed silent for a second, before he slammed his fist to the door, making my jump and let out a small whimper one more time, then he moved away as I stayed there rooted and shaking vigorously in my place, my head still turned to the side.

I heard him moving his chair and taking a seat, that was when I felt comfortable enough to breathe normally, I turned to look at him and saw him looking back at me, eyes dangerously angry, he was leaning forward, prompting his elbows on his desk.

 

I cleared my throat and pushed my hair behind my ear before turning around and leaving his office.

 

 

 

 

Everybody was watching me as I walked back to my own office, my eyes were glassy with unshed tears, my steps were uneven, I could feel chills running down my spine and beads of cold sweat forming on my forehead, my skin was sickeningly pale and Oh, I wished I could be strong enough to beat him to a pole, because who does he think he is to insult me like that? Was it pleasuring to see me so afraid of him? It must have been because he was just a sick bastard.

 

As I walked into my office and slammed the door behind me, I sat on my office chair, still shaking vigorously, and breathing fast. My heartbeat was so strong that I could feel it crashing my ribcage, I balled my hands tightly and started to breathe evenly, trying to calm myself down, when something flashed through my mind and made me scoff to myself.

 

 

 

 

To all the Taurus girls out there...

Never trust a Sagittarius...

 

 

 

 

 

 

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