It’s only Minseok he’s meeting, yet Joonmyun is extremely nervous. He gets along with Minseok just fine, in fact he’s a great boss, but when his boss calls him up in the middle of the day urgently requesting he comes in to see him, Joonmyun has every right to begin worrying.

“Hello Joonmyun, come in”

Joonmyun sends Minseok a nervous smile as he shuts the office door behind him and takes a seat across from his boss. He’s been in this situation plenty of times before, but sat there this time not knowing why he was there was a completely different feeling.

“Are you feeling better?” Minseok asks

“O-oh yeah, much better than how I was feeling a few days ago” Joonmyun replies, Minseok seemingly satisfied with his answer. Joonmyun has to sit through Minseok offering him a drink of coffee and watching Minseok make one for himself before a conversation is finally started between the two of them in which he can begin to get answers.

“Joonmyun, please, don’t look so nervous, you’re not in trouble” Minseok begins and that calms Joonmyun just a little bit “In fact I can assure you it’s actually really good news that’s brought you here today”

“Oh?”

“Indeed. See, our main business and economics presenter is soon retiring and for months we here have been looking for someone just as good as her to act as a replacement” Minseok explains “We went through numerous people trying to decide if they would be suitable, but after the recent pieces of work you’ve put in, we really only had one person left to choose”

“Wait, does that mean you want me to be the presenter?” Joonmyun asks as Minseok smiles widely and nods his head “Why me?”

“Joonmyun your reports so far have been spectacular! Many people have labelled you a rising star in the industry and I can think of no other person”

“S-so I’ll get to be on television?” Joonmyun asks

“On television, covering live events, getting to travel and write more than you already were and more” Minseok confirms “It will be a lot of hard work, but I have all the faith that you can pull this off perfectly”

If Joonmyun felt just that little bit closer to Minseok, he wouldn’t hesitate to jump up and hug him tightly at that moment. This was all Joonmyun had been dreaming of since day one, a chance to prove to anybody who had ever put him down- a chance to prove to his parents- that all he had worked towards had finally paid off. This was his big break!

Thanking Minseok a million times over, Joonmyun exits the office before he starts jumping around excitedly. He tries to call his brother and Baekhyun to tell them the good news, but neither of them are picking up, spotting Sunyoung at her desk, he doesn’t hesitate to run over and pick her up, spinning her around.

“Joonmyun!” she squeals as he puts her down and leans against her desk sighing happily “What’s up with you this afternoon?” she asks

“Everything is finally beginning to look up Sunyoung. I don’t think anything could ruin this moment”

Preparing to take over such an important role is harder work than Joonmyun had originally anticipated. There was limited free time compared to what he usually had, numerous nights where he almost went by not sleeping at all getting work done, rehearsal after rehearsal making sure that he was perfect for the actual day.

Whilst it was tiring, Joonmyun loved every second of it. This was finally the big break he had been looking forward to from day one. It also proved to be a great distraction from Yifan, though there were times he would come across a story or an article published about him, Joonmyun never dwelled on it for too long as he was soon onto another task that took his mind off it completely.

“I think I’m going to be sick”

Prior to his television debut, Joonmyun had hardly slept, nerves getting the better of him. He actually feels sorry for the makeup artist working frantically to make the bags under his eyes look less pronounced than what they are now.

“You’re going to be fine and you’re going to rock this!” the backstage staff says encouragingly as Joonmyun nods his head and sighs nervously

“The last time I felt this nervous was going into final exams” he says, the makeup artist finally finishing and being able to make Joonmyun a lot less tired than what he was.

“Just remember, take a deep breath and go at a steady pace. Don’t rush it and use the I-pad, it’ll be your saviour trust me”

With final checks in place, Joonmyun’s handed the I-pad and escorted over to the news set, ready to deliver his first report on national television.

“Good luck” a member of the backstage crew whispers to him as he makes his way over to his spot ready to start.

‘You can do this Joonmyun! You’ve got it!’ he cheers to himself one final time, taking one final deep breath in as he is silently given a countdown to the start of his report.

“Was I really that good? I swear you could hear my voice shaking throughout the whole thing if you went back to listen to it”

“Seriously? Who cares about that Joonmyun? You were amazing!”

He didn’t know how, but Joonmyun managed to get through the report with no slip ups whatsoever. At some points he thinks his voice was shaking so much that even he had difficulty making out whatever he was trying to say, but no matter, he got through it just fine and by the end it felt like his heart was about to burst through his body.

By the time Joonmyun has gotten past everybody who had come to congratulate him- nearly falling over when Baekhyun practically jumped on his back- it was well into the late evening when he arrived back at his apartment. He had just about avoided the rain which continued to hammer to the ground from the outside and had not even stepped into his place before Luhan had begun to call him.

“I really thought I was going to screw up, you wouldn’t believe how nervous I was!” Joonmyun tells him and hears Luhan scoff from the other line

“Trust me, you couldn’t tell you were nervous even if you had ear pressed up at the television screen” he assures 

“Know that from experience do you?” Joonmyun teases and laughs when he can hear Luhan whining

“Since when was this pick on Luhan evening? I was being a great friend, calling you from China and everything, and this is what I get?”

“You’re right, I’m sorry” Joonmyun says “How is China going for you anyway?”

“It’s going great! Though for the first few days I felt like a foreigner in my own home country!” Luhan replies seriously “But its great fun. There’s something new every day, I get to see my parents a lot more and I was able to tell them about Minseok without being scared for once!”

“How did they take it?”

“Pretty well actually, my dad especially, he wants to meet Minseok as soon as he can! But don’t tell Minseok, I’m saving that for when I get back” and Joonmyun promises- hand over heart- that he won’t tell Minseok anything and leave that to Luhan “But enough about me! How are you going to celebrate this new start?”

“Well Baekhyun has these deadlines coming up and he’s working to getting onto television himself, so he can’t come out to celebrate” Joonmyun begins “Jongdae and Yixing are working on some new songs for a Chinese-Korean Christmas album later in the year, and my brother is- quote- “out to have a fantastic meal with my lovely wife because we feel like it”, therefore I’m treating myself to some well-deserved takeaway and red wine”

“Oho, fancy up in here!” Luhan exclaims and the two begin laughing before there’s a knock at Joonmyun’s door

“Aha! Speaking of takeaway, I believe it’s arrived now” and saying a quick goodbye, grabs his money and runs to the door.

Having been so preoccupied with this new job role, Joonmyun had actually forgotten anything that had happened between him and Yifan. Opening the front door expecting to find the delivery man and instead getting a very soaked Yifan instead, well… he didn’t exactly know what to do…

You know, I never realised just how much I missed having Luhan in this fic until I actually wrote him in this chapter!

Oh... that, that little thing at the end there? At the apartment when Joonmyun opened the door? Yeah, Yifan's there, but that's not really important until the next chapter...

Until then!