Boss Complex

2. The quiet type

He could gloss over family issues as a reason without giving any details, and then he could make his way through this bullshit fest with some small sincere apology. Stepping back into the always busy office with the constant clatter of an impending nervous breakdown, he heads straight for the secretary seated obediently at her desk. She twirls a pink feather tipped pen around between her fingers as she scribbled something on a post-it note and tacks it to the corner of her computer monitor.

"Victoria?"

She looks up with her round dark eyes fixated on his expression expectantly as if she had known he would be coming.

"He's waiting for you inside." She says.

"No.. I don't have an appointment."

Victoria gives a small smile and tilts her head.

"He told me to let you in as soon as you arrived though."

Baekhyun glances at the closed office door and then back at her with an uncomfortable silence stretching between them. Perhaps to ease his mind, she picks up the phone receiver at her desk gingerly and presses the summon button.

"Mr. Byun Baekhyun is here for you, sir." She says. "Okay, I'll send him right in."

She lowers the receiver with a nod of the head and gestures towards the door, turning back immediately to the calendar app open on the glossy iMac screen with a rainbow of colored tabs marking almost every day of the month. Unsure why the man was already aware he would be coming by, Baekhyun tentatively eases onto the door handle and decides to grovel and beg for mercy if he threatens to fire him.

"Mr. Park?" He calls softly, peeking inside.

His boss is seated at a large mahogany desk with ornate wood carved designs on the legs. He holds his head up slightly when he sees Baekhyun at the door, reaching one hand out and beckoning him in with two fingers before returning his studied gaze to his work. This is becoming something of a pattern now, people glancing up only enough to deal with you before getting back to their feverish workload. This is definitely not the life Baekhyun wants, but with his sister blatantly disobeying his parent's wishes, he can't also do the same. The both of them would be disowned in one swoop. Better to just suck it up for a few months. That is, if he's not about to be fired.

"Please have a seat." Park says with authority in his voice, never glancing up from the packet of paperwork in hand or the dual monitors on his desk that he repeatedly flicked his gaze to for cross reference.

"You were expecting me?" Baekhyun offers softly to break the silence as he made his way across the spacious office to sit in one of the two garnet chairs before the desk.

"Mm." He replies, still keeping his eyes down.

Yep. This was probably a bad sign. Thankfully, if he got fired he could just claim that he really wanted to do business but it looks like he isn't cut out for it. The good news is that, he could probably get out of trouble by blaming the company, the CEO or just the timing. Park starts to rustle papers into a tapped out pile and pulls away his silver rimmed reading glasses to look up at Baekhyun, and he notices for the first time that this man is actually, not as monkey-esque as he thought. Though his ears are still obnoxiously large like a fairy, he can see that his eyes are soft when he's not glaring down at him in irritation. But the passing gentle expression is quickly pushed aside by the return of his stark expression.

"Byun, I understand that this is your first office job..." He starts but stops to make sure he words things properly.

Chanyeol looks across his desk, his mind clear and thoughts composed after his flustered earlier encounter. He clears his throat as if to speak, ready to give a harsh speech but is stopped in mid-sentence. Baekhyun lifts narrow fingers to his mouth, stroking the corner of his lip with his fore finger absently.