Pen to Dotted Line [Namjoon X Reader] {On-hold While I Edit}

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Staring at the contract in front of you, you read and re-read the terms stated on the white pieces of paper that was going to determine your life. Or at least the next few years of your life. The person sitting in front of you knew that you were going to sign it no matter what. He knew just how much you loved your job. The both of you were just pretending to be negotiating.

"The pen is right next to you Y/N-ssi. How long are we going to pretend you are not going to take up this offer?"

"Sung-ki-ssi, the terms on this contract is enough to send anyone to a hospital for exhaustion just by reading it. I would definitely want to be remunerated accordingly for it."

"8% increase then, and an additional month's bonus."

"15% increase, a total of 3 months bonus."

"You know I can't do that."

"Well, then, good luck finding someone who's willing to do the work of 2 people. My new salary is a lot lesser than 2 people's pay."

"Fine, fine, I'll do that. In fact, I'm going to give you 20% increase and 4 month's bonus, with the staff benefits we included from the last round of discussion. I'll get a new contract printed out now."

Shocked, you try to keep your poker face. You hadn't expected this at all. As his assistant comes in with the freshly printed contract, you re-read it, making sure that all the terms discussed were properly entailed in the contract. The reality is in front of you now. You grip the pen, putting it on paper, drawing it across the line. You sign your signature on the dotted that was placed above your name. That was it. It was official. The beginning of a new phase.

Sung-Ki and you stand up, shaking on the contract.

"You know I'm very proud of you. I was waiting for you to fight for what you deserve rather than letting other people step all over you."

"I did learn from you." you smirk right back at him.

"By the way, you look really nice, you rarely put on a dress."

Smiling in embarrassment, you don't say anything, knowing people never liked having their compliment refuted. It doesn't mean that you accepted or truly believed their words though. In the end, you never really knew how to respond to compliments.

"Go on, enjoy yourself. You deserve it after the past 1.5 years. Your next few years will test you."

"Right on it, boss."

Right after slogging for 6 months as a graphics intern as part of your university industrial placement, the graphics department was made redundant. You had loved what you were doing over there, doing so much of the collaterals for the company and the artists that came from there.

It nearly broke your heart when they closed it and opted to outsource the work. The work was hard, you had to admit. The deadlines were always tight and workload was heavy, you never got more than 6 hours of sleep a lot of the time. When they had announced the closure, you were more worried than heartbroken, but they had seen your hard work and all of that paid off as they offered you another contract of a year. You snapped it up. It meant one year of not worrying about money and rent.

Only, after you truly delved into the job, it felt you got suckered into it.

The new job meant that you were doing a lot of creative input and sending off the drafts for good rework at the outsource but you end up doing a lot of the work because of the miscommunications and tight deadlines. It afforded better work life balance but you always stressed that you can't make plans. You always were either at work or on standby to get to work, covering stuff like being the coffee girl, food delivery, copy girl, postman, running errands for trainees at the beginning before going on to cover bigger responsibilities. You've done insane film setups, recce new film locations, distributing flyers. It was under the mentality of being a part of the set of small wheels that helped keep the medium sized wheels keep the big wheels turning. Your time and attention was spread throughout so many departments and people because of the skillset that you originally had and for those you picked up along the way which actually was a result of your inability to say no to people with their damn puppy eyes.

Tired and stressed as you were, you loved the dynamics of the work. Work was never boring. On top of that you had great colleagues, the rapport you have established to keep things running was amazingly well tuned.

Speaking of which, they all rush to you like a stampede in their excitement as you step out of the office

"Ya~! Y/N-shi! You're the second most senior of us now! Wow! You're wearing a dress."

"Congratulations, unnie!"

"Come on, let's go for a meal. Boss, you wanna come with?"

"Gotta go for meetings. Next time."

"Catch ya next time boss. Come on girls, let go!"

He notices you when you walk into cafe you frequented. He recognised your friend first, the one the lot of you calls Hana. From the past few times you he happened to see the whole group, he had observed the two of you were the closest to each other amongst this group.

This time, however, you are the one who catches his eye. You wear a flowy red dress that swirls around as you move. This wasn't the first time he had seen you, but it is the first time he sees your grace and elegance.

You are, of course oblivious to this since you were busy enjoying the company of your colleagues. You were loud but not obnoxiously so, as your laughter rings out in the cafe, it just adds to the sounds of a busy cafe during lunch.

"Wow, I can't believe you're in a dress. You look so gorgeous!"

"Yeah, after the past 4 years, you in a dress, it's a brand new concept. I can't wrap my head around it" Hana takes a jab at you.

"Hey, you were the one who stunned us all with that bodycon dress when you signed your own contract. I almost had a heart attack. But then, I really miss wearing dresses. I used to wear them all the time because they were the easiest stuff to put on in the mornings."

"Psshh, when was that last time you wore a dress? And what, you're complaining now?"

"Hey, it was... okay fine, it was way back in uni. And I switched because I was always running around. I love the jeans and loose shirts. They're insanely comfortable for all the stuff that we have to do."

"Honestly, with all the amount of heavy lifting and running around that we do, how are we not losing any weight at all?"

"Excuse me, what heavy lifting?"

They all laugh. They knew how strong you were and how you never liked to ask for help. So, you end up doing a lot of the literal heavy lifting.

"Well, it is paying off. You're looking so awesome these days with all your toned muscles."

"Pssh~ the scale doesn't lie, and neither do my clothes. Why do you think all my stuff are loose fitted?"

Sitting a little aways from you, he unwittingly listens in on the conversation. He can't help but smile. He knew the signs of someone who has low self confidence. You were stunning, but you didn't think that way, from the way you brush off compliments without hurting anyone's feelings. Even more than that, Namjoon couldn't understand why his attention is drawn to you. You have this charisma that people can't help but be drawn to.

"Okay, that's not that the important thing. The most important thing is how high is your pay raise and how fat your bonus is!"

"Well, it's enough to buy all of you three rounds and a bottle tonight! It's time to party!"

You don't notice but he stays observing you for the rest of the time you were there.