BEHIND THE SCENES

chapter 35: crossing the line

"She doesn't tell me anything, she doesn't ask me anything-" Hoseok groaned. "To be quite frank with you, I'm afraid I'm gonna lose the bet again."

Chungha let out a victorious chuckle as she punched her fists into the air. "Aha!"

Hoseok groaned. "Oh, shut up."

"Oh- bujang-nim!"

Hoseok and Chungha scrambled to their feet once more and bowed towards the door, expecting Namjoon to walk through the doors. But yet again, there was no Namjoon in sight - it was Minhyun.

Hoseok sighed. "Hyejin-ssi!"

"Oh-" Hyejin sniggered. "Sorry."

"She keeps on pranking us, I swear-" Hoseok groaned as he sat back down in her seat. "Maybe she has an intuition about what we're up to and isn't happy about it."

"Why wouldn't she be?"

"She's a goody-to-shoes," Hoseok said. "Can't you tell? She's so capable, and is on good terms with Namjoon. Frankly, we shouldn't even be betting on who gets on TV first. If we're not careful, she's gonna end up stealing our jobs."

Chungha's eyes widened. "Hurry up and start working then. Don't wanna lose our jobs, do we?"

"Nah-uh-" Hoseok shook his head as he turned towards his desk quickly, flipping through the files on his desk. "Not to a 6-month-old reporter."

Silence fell over them as they were serious for roughly five whole seconds.

"Chungha-ya, tell me honestly-" Hoseok leaned towards Chungha and whispered with a grin. "You secretly want me to win, don't you?"

Chungha glanced at him and frowned. "I wonder what gave you that impression."

"Just a gut feeling-" Hoseok joked. "You won the last time, and I've been diligently cleaning up your desk for you. Let me win this one time."

"Unfortunately, it's not within my control, oppa-" Chungha shrugged. "Why don't you spend more time on your work to ensure you keep your job when one of them gets promoted?"

"Ah-" Hoseok nodded. "That's true, bujang-nim can be a bit of a pain in the ass sometimes..."

"Oh- bujang-nim!"

Hoseok laughed as Hyejin got to her feet behind him. "I'm not getting fooled this time. It's true isn't it? Sometimes, Kim Namjoon annoys me both as a boss and as a rival, but what can I do? I-"

"Oh-" Chungha eyes widened and she rose to her feet abruptly as well. "Bujang-nim."

"You too? I swear-" Hoseok chuckled as he looked up, his jaws dropping as he scrambled to his feet quickly. "Bujang-nim."

"I'm a pain in the ass?" Namjoon narrowed his eyes as he glanced at Hoseok. "And Kim Namjoon annoys you...?"

Hoseok let out a nervous laugh. "Um... bujang! Listen-"

Namjoon frowned as he turned to Chungha. "Chungha-ssi, you as well-"

"Yeah, Hoseok-ssi!" Chungha sided with Namjoon after stifling a laugh. "I told you to stop talking about bujang-nim like this behind his back, didn't I?"