palpitations | s.k. + j.l. (soonhoon)

쉰둘 (swindul)

"Good morning, everyone," Jihoon greeted his coworkers, smiling politely and setting his bag on his desk. He sat down in his seat and turned on his desktop, tapping his fingers against his desk as he waited for it to load. He looked up and frowned.

"Why are all of you staring at me?" Jihoon asked suspiciously, and immediately after he said that, his colleagues all crowded around his desk.

"You're happy," Seungkwan stated.

"What makes you say that?" Jihoon replied as he typed on his keyboard to log in. "I just did what I always do. I said good morning."

"No, your greeting was different today. You smiled at us. I've never seen you smile this early in the morning for as long as I've known you," Wonwoo said.

"What happened?" Mingyu questioned eagerly.

"Nothing. You guys are overreacting," Jihoon retorted. He shooed them away. "Go do your work."

"Wait. I've never seen you wear that necklace before, Jihoon-sunbae. Is it new?" Hansol piped up, and Jihoon grimaced internally. He had been caught.

"Oh, you're right! Jihoon got a new necklace!" Mingyu parroted.

"Wow, it's an expensive one too...did you get a sugar daddy?" Seungkwan asked, causing Jihoon to choke on his spit.

"Jihoon-hyung did?! Our Jihoon-hyung?!" Mingyu exclaimed. Jihoon winced.

"One second—" Jihoon protested, but his voice went unheard as everyone began speaking over one another.

"Wow, that's amazing, Jihoon-hyung. Respect," Mingyu said, holding his thumbs up.

"Hey, does your sugar daddy have any other hot rich friends? If he does, can you set me up with one of them?" Seungkwan requested.

"Don't listen to him, Jihoon-sunbae!" Hansol interjected loudly.

"You know, I'm honestly not that surprised. You've always seemed like the type to get a sugar daddy," Wonwoo hummed.

"Shut up, all of you!" Jihoon yelled, and everyone froze. He sighed tiredly and rubbed his temple, wondering how he was going to get through the day. He heard someone whistle lowly.

"Looks like someone didn't get enough sleep last night. Did your man keep you up late?" Mingyu teased, grinning suggestively. Jihoon kicked Mingyu's leg strongly. "Ow!"

"If anyone else wants to share Mingyu's fate, then by all means, keep talking. If not, get to work. Don't some of you have reports due today?" Jihoon stared pointedly at Hansol and Seungkwan, who avoided Jihoon's eyes as they hurried back to their desks.

"And you," Jihoon continued, turning to Wonwoo. "Aren't you supposed to be sorting through the letters for 'Hello Counselor'?"

"I was going to do that soon," Wonwoo mumbled.

Jihoon rolled his eyes. He pulled out his phone and looked through his texts, smiling as he noticed a recent one from Soonyoung. His hand flew up to his necklace, and he rubbed the star pendant on it contentedly, unaware that he was wearing a soft smile. He heard Hansol mutter under his breath and turned to face him.

"What was that?" Jihoon asked.

"Nothing!"

♬

"I've been staring at my computer for so long that I've forgotten how to spell the word 'script'," Hansol sighed, rubbing his eyes. "I forgot an entire fucking syllable."

"Wow, you're even cursing at work...you must be really tired," Wonwoo said sympathetically. "You should take a break, Hansol-ah."

"I can't, I still have to edit it," Hansol groaned.

"I'll edit it. Get some rest for a few minutes," Jihoon told Hansol, rolling his chair over to Hansol's desk.

"Thanks, Jihoon-sunbae." Hansol smiled gratefully and moved away from his desk, letting Jihoon take his place. He grabbed his phone and leaned back in his chair as he went on it.

"Wonwoo-hyung, I've printed out my report on last week's episode," Seungkwan announced as he handed his report to Wonwoo. "I included some pictures of the most popular comments too, just for reference. Do you want me to bring those letters over to the writers now?"

"That would be great. I'll look through this," Wonwoo replied, taking Seungkwan's report from him.

"No way!" Hansol suddenly shouted, bolting upright in his seat. Mingyu jumped at the loud noise, and Jihoon only shook his head and sighed disappointedly before returning to Hansol's report.

"What is it?" Mingyu asked, running over to Hansol's side. His eyes widened as he looked at Hansol's phone. "Is that real?!"

"Is what real?" Wonwoo and Seungkwan crowded around Hansol's phone as well.

"Hoshi-ssi has a boyfriend?!" Seungkwan exclaimed, and Jihoon froze.

"What?" He joined the others and looked at what they were looking at. His breath caught in his throat when he saw the picture of himself leaving Soonyoung's car and the two of them hugging.

"They might not be dating," Wonwoo argued weakly, giving Jihoon a worried glance.

"Are you kidding me? They're getting out of his car! Not to mention that that guy is wearing Hoshi-hyung's favorite shirt," Mingyu pointed out.

"It's his favorite shirt?" Jihoon asked faintly, and Mingyu nodded.

"The other guy looks kind of familiar. Maybe he's also an idol?" Hansol wondered curiously.

"Man, if only they got his face in the picture." Seungkwan pouted, crossing his arms. "I need to know who the other guy is!"

"I need to step out for a second," Jihoon mumbled.

Jihoon rushed out of the room as the others continued to discuss the picture. He ran down the hallway, breathing heavily and trying to not to think. He eventually stopped and collapsed against the wall, holding his head in his hands as he slid down it. Who had taken that picture of them? What if someone found out it was him in the photo? He should've been more careful...

"There you are. You're too fast," Wonwoo's voice spoke up, panting. Jihoon felt Wonwoo sit down next to him, and he allowed Wonwoo to hug him comfortingly.

"You'll find someone better, Jihoon-ah. There's plenty of fish in the sea, right?" Wonwoo joked. He rubbed circles into Jihoon's back.

"Do you want me to call Seungyeon and Sajakul over tonight? We can get drunk and forget all our worries," Wonwoo offered, and Jihoon nodded. Getting drunk sounded like a good idea. Anything to help him escape his reality.

A/N: uhhh i'm rly sorry it took so long honestly i almost didn't update this week either bc there's been so much going on and even these next upcoming weeks i have a lot going on but i felt like it was rude not to post anything since it's been a rly long time since i last updated so i started working on this last night and finished it today. how was it? pls tell me what you thought of it! sorry again.

linked song is "즐겨 (I LIKE IT)" by CLC bc you know i love my girls my gf/wife eunbin looks so good in this i love her i'm so gay...anyways again i'm so sorry this took so long. ty guys for being so understanding and nice about it tho that rly means a lot to me! i can't say fs when the next update is but i'll try and make it soon. ty guys for always supporting this. have an amazing rest of your day! bye <3