Luhan sets off for China on the day of Joonmyun’s interview with Choi Siwon. He runs the risk of being late, but he goes to see Luhan off at the airport with Baekhyun.

“Come on guys I’ll only be gone for six months! Plus, I’m only a flight away” Luhan says, trying to cheer them up when he sees just how sad they are

“Yeah but that’s six months too long!” Baekhyun exclaims

“And you’re leaving me here with him. How do you think I’m going to cope by myself?” Joonmyun adds, him and Luhan laughing when Baekhyun whines and slaps him on the arm. Yes he’s quite an eccentric person, but he’s not that difficult to work with!

Being the eldest out of the three, Luhan tries to be happy and put on a brave face, but with his flight time looming ever closer and that he needs to check in and get through security before he’s kicked off the flight, he can’t help but feel emotional himself and brings them both in for one final hug.

His work colleagues had thrown him a surprise leaving party the previous night. It was the perfect send off for him as it gave him the opportunity to say his goodbyes to everybody- including Joonmyun and Baekhyun- there and then. Minseok had also come to the party and nobody was none the wiser that the two of them were even dating. Standing at the airport, Joonmyun thinks that Luhan would have loved it if Minseok had also come to see him off but they both knew he couldn’t, that was why they had both left the party early for their own quality time together and Joonmyun helped Luhan make up a decent excuse of why he had to leave without looking too suspicious.

“Promise me you’ll watch out for him” Luhan whispers into Joonmyun’s ear when he’s brought in for his hug

“If we weren’t hugging I’d pinky promise” Joonmyun whispers back and it’s good enough to both reassure Luhan and make him laugh.

With the final, final goodbyes in place, Luhan parts from his friends and makes his way through security. Joonmyun and Baekhyun stay there and keep waving goodbye to him until he’s through and they can no longer see him.

“Come on, before you start crying on me” Joonmyun says and leads a very emotional Baekhyun out of the airport and back to his car, giving him a lift to work before he makes his way across for his interview.

Choi Siwon was not an intimidating man. He made sure that Joonmyun felt welcome the minute he arrived, offering light conversation whilst Joonmyun set up and got everything that he needed for the interview ready. He was soft spoken, sat with a gentle smile ever present on his face, he was the complete opposite of who Yifan was when Joonmyun first stepped into his office.  

“… I know I won’t be one of the richest men in the country forever. There comes a point where you begin to slow down and someone else will prove themselves worthy of being richer and I will embrace that when the time comes. Until then, I am enjoying every moment of my career I’ve managed to build so far”

Siwon sits back and studies Joonmyun who nods his head and writes down a few notes in his notepad, getting ready to move onto the next question.

“I’ve heard a lot about you” Siwon pipes up and catches him by surprise

“O-oh. Really?” Joonmyun asks

“Oh yes. Quite a lot actually. It was after I read the article you had done with the interview on Yifan and I had asked him how it went” Siwon explains and though his heart begins to beat erratically, Joonmyun smiles and laughs nervously.

“W-well I can only imagine he said positive things about me” he tries to joke

“And more” Siwon adds “But we’re not here to talk about that, please continue with your questions”

“Of course. Uh, in countless of interviews I have read with other uprising business people, they always say they wish to become as successful as you. What is your recipe for success? What advice would you give people who wish to strive towards the success you have had?”

Siwon takes a moment to think through his answer and Joonmyun sits there patiently waiting for him to speak. Before he can give his answer however, they’re interrupted by someone knocking on the door.

“I’m so sorry, would it be fine if I took this?” Siwon asks and waits for Joonmyun to say that it’s okay before he allows the person to enter the room.

Either he had planned it deliberately or fate was being extremely cruel to Joonmyun, but he was hardly surprised when Yifan entered the room, carrying a pile of documents with him.

“I know you’re in an interview, but apparently these documents couldn’t wait and had to be signed straight away” he explains and Siwon beckons him over so that he can read through the documents himself.

Yifan catches Joonmyun staring at him and his ever annoying smirk that Joonmyun always wants to punch off of him is present on his face.  The Yifan who had turned up to his house that previous night was now gone and Joonmyun wasn’t so sure if he was ever going to see that Yifan again. It was nice whilst it lasted.

“Ah, yes” Siwon says when he catches the two of them staring at each other “You remember Joonmyun don’t you Yifan?”

“How could I forget? It wasn’t exactly the most proper of interviews I had the pleasure of sitting through” Yifan replies

“P-pardon?” Joonmyun asks, making an effort to sound polite but judging by how hard he’s gripping his notepad shows that if Siwon wasn’t there, he would be anything but.

“Don’t you remember? I distinctly remember a number of times we had some… disagreements shall we say. Though, I was quite surprised by how well you could talk with that mouth of yours”

“Yifan” Siwon warns

“What? I’m just saying that even if he was a newbie I would have expected some professionalism instead of half the conversations we had that day. I did enjoy it but-“

“Yifan please” Siwon interrupts

“It’s fine” Joonmyun reassures with a strained smile “I can handle something as small as this”  and with Siwon concentrating on reading the rest of the documents, Joonmyun reaches out to kick Yifan on the shin. He doesn’t care how hard he kicks him and Yifan doesn’t show signs of caring and instead just rolls his eyes and attempts to reach out and nudge Joonmyun back, except Joonmyun is swift and manages to dodge him easily.

“Do either of you two have a pen I can borrow?” Siwon asks and Joonmyun fumbles about trying to give him his but is beaten by Yifan

“I have one” he says and it is unrecognisably Joonmyun’s pen he had lost since the day of their first interview that Yifan had kept since. Yifan is close to laughing at the expression on Joonmyun’s face, but stops himself just in time when his father passes him back the pen.

“Now that’s all settled, I shall leave the two of you to finish your interview” he says, picking up the documents and twirling Joonmyun’s pen around his fingers, pocketing it and finally exiting the room.

“Sunyoung, is Minseok in his office?” Joonmyun asks the minute he steps into the company building

“Yes he is” Sunyoung replies

“And he’s alone?”

“He doesn’t have a meeting scheduled for another hour so you should be fine. Is something wrong?” Sunyoung asks

“It’s nothing, just been one of those days” Joonmyun replies and marches straight on up to Minseok’s office, determination written all across his face.

Never before had he felt so embarrassed in front of anybody like that. How dare Yifan go in and potentially ruin his interview- his big break- because he wanted to score some points, get a one up on Joonmyun, whatever the hell he was doing. What happened to the guy who came to his door needing somewhere to go? The guy who just sat there silently drinking his hot chocolate whilst Joonmyun worked in the same room as him?

 “Come in Joonmyun” Minseok says before Joonmyun can knock on his door (no doubt this had been the work of Sunyoung calling up to notify him of the younger’s appearance). Entering the office, Minseok is sat at his desk greeting Joonmyun with a smile which the latter is unable to reciprocate.

“You said you knew Choi Siwon and Yifan well, right?” he asks

“Of course I do. Why do you ask?” Minseok replies

“I need the address of Yifan” Joonmyun demands “Please”

“Can I ask what happened?” and though he had promise himself that he would remain calm and get through this without being too upset, Minseok’s question completely disregards whatever resolve he had built up since finishing his interview and the car journey back to the building.

“He is such an idiot. An infuriating idiot!” he shouts, raking a hand through his hair “He knew that his father had this bloody interview and what does he do? Barges in halfway through and says things to embarrass me, belittle me. Who the hell does he think he is? What is his problem?”

“Joonmyun calm down, I’m sure it wasn’t that bad” Minseok tries as a form of comfort, though it does little to actually comfort Joonmyun

“You weren’t there, it was ridiculous! Siwon may have acted like it was nothing… but he was probably doing that to bring some comfort to me. What about after I left? He probably thinks I’m such a loser or something. This was meant to be my big break and instead it was ruined by his idiotic dickhead of a son who doesn’t know when to keep his trap shut and leave me alone!”

Joonmyun collapses into the seat across from Minseok and honestly feels like crying. Yifan’s incompetence had probably ruined Joonmyun’s biggest break in his tiny career so far. There were other opportunities out there sure, but when was he ever going to get a chance like this again?

“Look Joonmyun, Siwon is not that kind of man. Trust me” Minseok begins “Just go back to your desk, go outside for a time out and calm down, it’s not the end of the world. Okay? If it really worries you, I can always give Siwon a call to explain the situation to him”

Joonmyun would very much like Minseok to do just that and asks him if he can do so. Taking Minseok’s advice, he gives himself a much deserved time out and goes out to get some fresh air to calm himself down. Minseok was right, it wasn’t the end of the world and he could get over it. He didn’t need Yifan being such a negative influence in his life like that.

“What did I tell you last time Yifan? I told you to leave him alone and yet you do this!”

Straight after Joonmyun had left his office, Minseok was on the phone straight to Yifan. It took three attempts for Yifan to finally answer his damn phone and when he did, Minseok wasted no time in getting straight to the point.

“Oh come on, he should learn to take a joke” Yifan says and Minseok can almost imagine him rolling his eyes

“Well he didn’t. He was here ranting and panicking that his career was ruined because you went and interrupted their interview” Minseok replies before sighing “Can you just please, I don’t know… tone down on whatever the hell you’re doing to him? I’m not having you drive him so far over the edge that he quits! He’s one of the uprising stars we have here and I’m not about to lose him because of you!”

“Yes mum, sorry mum! I won’t ‘annoy’ him as much anymore. Don’t get your knickers in a twist!”

Minseok doesn’t believe him. He knows Yifan says things like this but knows he either doesn’t mean it, or never keeps to his promises for too long. He should have never given Joonmyun the interview in the first place…

Yeah, when I said the harmony between them wouldn't last long... I literally meant a chapter... oh wel! We all love bickering KrisHo don't deny it!

I'll also use this as an opportunity to explain that I may be inactive with updates for a while. I'm starting uni and moving away from home, making new friends, freshers week, and settling down is going to take a while so updates will be sporadic. I'll still update! Trust me when I say I'm so looking forward to the next few chapters but I thought I'd write this to let you know if I'm like... absent for a while!

Until the next chapter!!