Vipāka [Sanskrit.] :fruition of consequences (for one's intentional actions)
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CHAPTER 7
"Looming" Arc
EP: THREE
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"Can't you go faster!"
"No, idiot! I can't go past the speed limit! We're on the main road!" Yeosang shouted at his impatient brother from the driver's seat, praying that their rusty old banger won't break down again like it did not too long ago after they just dropped Hyewoon off at the airport.
Tuesday's traffic was being extra savage to them than any other day, it seemed to know that Taehyun was running late for his interview. A once-in-a-lifetime kind of interview at HYBE Group.
He did not spend all night in front of the mirror rehearsing his speech just to arrive there several minutes late in such unprofessional manner.
With stress getting the best of him at the moment, Taehyun watched helplessly from the back seat, doubting if Yeosang still knew how to drive after they had abandoned their car for so long to save maintenance costs. Every roll of wheels felt like ages, like he was riding the back of a turtle.
I should've taken the bus, Taehyun clicked his tongue and readjusted his necktie, as he watched many buses zooming by their godforsaken car in the speed of wind in utter dismay.
When the watch on his wrist read 10:07, the 19-floor building finally came into view. Taehyun flung the door open and scurried to his destination before Yeosang even finished wishing him good luck.
"Shit, which floor was it again?" He mumbled to himself after he passed the security gate. Once he got himself onto the elevator, Taehyun checked his phone and scrolled through his inbox to find the directions, and browsed for a bit before pressing the 7F button confidently.
Not aware of his eyes mixing up some numbers, he dashed out of the elevator and down the huge hallways of the seventh floor to find a particular auditorium as the directions read.
Fuck, this ain't it. Why does this place have to be so huge!?
After stopping a person who was most likely to be an employee, he found out this wasn't the floor he was supposed to be on. So once again, Taehyun sprinted back to the elevator and quickly pressed the button to catch up with the chamber while it was descending from an upper floor.
C'mon, hurry the fuck up!
When the reflective metal doors slid apart, however, Taehyun's mouth hung open to blurt out an intense reaction for the appearance of his untimely doom.
"What the fuck?"
ꔛ♡
Ten minutes earlier...
11th floor, HYBE building.
"Team Leader Choi! Are you out of your mind, sir?" said the old man in disbelief from the other end.
"Oh? Did you not hear me? I said you will give no. 47 Kang Taehyun an ultimate pass in the interview and place him in my team." Beomgyu repeated himself nonchalantly. The man on the phone did not seem to pick up the meaning of his precise Korean as he pressed on with relentless complaint.
"But the boy doesn't even hold an impressive degree... or sufficient work experience to be in our company! I don't think that is fair to just let such person in here easi-"
"And the more you argue, the more it becomes tempting for me to give away all the evidence to the board about your salary fraud last month. So that they will take measures and cause a fuss in your department, HR Chief, Mr Lee. I suppose you would not want that even as a nightmare, no?" Beomgyu twirled the pen in his hands, bored of reasoning with the stubborn small fry without having the hard way.
"Wha- No! I wouldn't dare go against the candidate CEO! Ahaha... If Leader Choi requests a favour, it is my honour to fulfil it. That Kang boy will be summoned to your office right away once the interview is done!"
"Hmm, that's the spirit. Well then, do your best, Lee boojang*. I suppose you're just as useful for the company even though greed keeps dragging your efficiency and virtues down to the bottom." Beomgyu cut off the line before the ageing pest from the other side could blabber more superficial flatteries to add extra effort in keeping Beomgyu's mouth shut.
Beomgyu laughed merrily at how the old man was not being sleek enough to perpetrate such act without leaving traces behind that were obvious enough for him to follow. The corner of his lips rose upwards in satisfaction after getting what he wanted.
No wonder Sookyung loved to use her privileged powers. They became somewhat handy to Beomgyu too. Well, sometimes. He wouldn't make everyone bow to him or butter him up all the time just to get a raise or to cut corners of the work their useless asses couldn't keep up with. Beomgyu reckoned it as a waste of energy unless he needed to achieve something with minimum effort - then it's worth abusing his authority.
Beomgyu put his pen back into the holder, an evil chuckle escaping his lips at the thought of the future when he'll be teaching a certain imbecile a good lesson for crossing him, or more precisely, stepping on his precious foot, inching nearer by each tick of seconds.
A cafeteria burger sounds good right now~ since I only had a salad this morning...
With his now empty stomach audibly agreeing with him, Beomgyu got up from the chair and strode out of his office to make his way to the cafeteria on the lower floor.
On the way, passerby employees dropped him a bow in a manner of respect. He only returned a curt nod just enough not to be called as the "cocky son of CEO" behind his back, and since smiling was too much for his liking. Which was probably why he was named as "that stone-cold punk from Marketing" instead. After all, he was reported every idle gossip and rumour flying around from his dearest Deputy Manager Soobinie.
Beomgyu got inside the elevator, shut the door with a flick of his merciless finger and pressed 5F with the motive of not wanting to wait around for people from other floors to get in. He checked his watch that read 10:15 a.m, satisfied to know that it had been fifteen minutes after the interview commenced, he put his hand pack inside his pocket.
The descending chamber suddenly slowed down on the 7th floor, and much to his annoyance, the doors slid open before he could even shut them back. Beomgyu's brows knitted at the sight of the platinum blonde hair.
When the bleached head from the other side mouthed a 'what the fuck' before stepping in hesitantly, Beomgyu became aware of the phantom pain that ached on the skin of his foot.
Invading into the elevator in all his glory was the person whom Beomgyu had a scheme to take revenge on, Kang Taehyun, the very son of a b¡tch that stepped on his foot a week ago.
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"Oh crap! My hair!"
Yeosang looked up when droplets of rain slid from his scalp to his sideburns. The last time he checked, the forecast did not warn anyone about the drizzle they would get in a clear, spring afternoon. Chances are, it could be the last-minute announcement that came out way later after he was outside.
And the reason why Yeosang worried about his hair was the affordable hairspray he used to style it, so the 'wet look' would be akin to a dirty mop that hadn't been washed. The fact that he didn't even bring his bike to avoid the wind messing his hair up - maybe that's why the sky sent rain to do the job instead. And don't even get him started on the white dress shirt he was wearing.
The first thing he did was to run under the nearest awning he could find and took his phone out to call Wooyoung to remind him to give Taehyun an umbrella when he comes to pick Jiu up since the younger did not bring one with him if Yeosang remembered correctly.
Fortunately, the shelter he got himself happened to be from the convenience store where one of his acquaintances worked at. A brilliant idea suddenly sparked in him as he thought of how to get to his destination without getting his hair ruined or having his shirt see-through.
After talking with the cashier noona who was also his classmate back in school, Yeosang hopped out of the store with a borrowed umbrella and sprinted in the rain to get to Inception that was five or six blocks away from where he was.
[Art credit to the rightful owner]
Yeosang slowed his pace down when he almost entered the cafe from the back door - force of a habit - and retracted himself to the shopfront like nothing happened. He closed the umbrella, shook it off just before entering the cafe, and placed it on the hanger stand just like every customer would. Speaking of which, it's fairly weird that the bell above the entrance chimed to welcome him as a guest and not like any other times where every time it chimed meant more work for him because he also served for extra tips after gigging.
Recalling what the person said on the phone, Yeosang eyed the tables to look for a male with particular hair colour but nothing was found in a pool of brunettes or blondes scattered here and there.
Assuming he was early, he relaxed on one of the tables by the windows and which was quite near to the entrance and checked the time on his phone.
I'm on time. But why hasn't he shown up?
He peered around again, but no person fit the description that was said when Yeosang asked how to find the guy he was meeting with, making him rethink the whole "offer" deal.
All the crazy stuff about that guy offering him to participate in his song recording and whatnot - they haven't got into the details yet - the idea alone made Yeosang excited and nervous at the same time. He only had his passion for himself and had never expressed it any more than as a side job, nor did he have the time to do so. Though he had a hunch that this was an opportunity to take his talent a step further and see how it can be improved, hence why he was here.
And if you, who are witnessing this situation, are someone overprotective like Jung-dramatic-Wooyoung, before you come at him for being too "trusting", worry not, because being nice is one thing that Kang Yeosang effortlessly does but never let anyone take advantage of.
Plus, he had nothing to lose from this apart from being ghosted in case that guy turned out to be playing around. And bold of them to assume Kang Yeosang would let anyone, and he meant anyone, get on his nerves without having them flipped off at the very least.
While he was lost in thoughts, suddenly someone tapped on him.
"Heol! What do we have here~ Thought you wouldn't show up on your 'once-in-a-lifetime' day off," beamed Han Jisung, the one and only, in his server uniform, carrying an empty tray in his hand.
Yeosang turned to him, stone-faced, "What? Surprised?"
"Very much. Whatcha up to?"
"Take a guess."
"Meeting someone?" Yeosang gave a low, prolonged whistle jokingly.
"Someone better get the camera for this rare footage of our Daramjisung* getting something right at the first shot." The younger male, offended, nudged him with the edge of his tray.
"Don't call me dumb!"
"But I didn't. Now tell me, have the charming office guy of yours already dropped by to get his coffee?" Yeosang brought his palms under his chin and made artificial dreamy eyes.
"Um, no. I haven't seen him today." Jisung's voice trailed off as he fidgeted on his feet before suddenly clearing his throat.
"It's not like I have time to wait around for some nobody! I have things to do. Just like queen Nicki, I give zero fs and I got zero chills in me," he fixed his sandy brown hair sassily at the end of the sentence.
"Aye, whatever ya say, Jisungie~ Hey, while you're at it, can you get me a flat white decaf, please?"
"Sure I can. But hold on, you haven't answered my question. Who are you waiting for?"
"A client." Jisung's mouth formed a little 'o'.
"Wow, already? I guess business is booming for you. It's not even like, a month since your monthly commissions closed."
"Actually, this one isn't related to my shop. He wanted to talk about a gig session with me."
"Really?" Jisung turned around for a moment to notice a customer raising their hand. "Wait, duty calls! I'll be back, hyung, I'm not done with you yet."
"Hey! Don't forget my decaf, squirrel boy!" the blond cupped around his mouth and shouted to the sandy brown male.
Back to where he was, Yeosang stared off into space again when he had nothing more to do than wait for his client. Which he thought he was having unintentional leisure, and that idea alone was enough to make him feel restless somehow as if his body didn't have a proper reaction in store for this rare phenomenon.
After for who knows how long, Jisung came back to his table briefly to drop off his order. Yeosang sipped on the foamy drink that had the least caffeine to avoid worsening his tremors. He still had to do some final touches for that 'marble tiger' project and had no time to spare for shaky hands when meeting the deadlines.
Right. I have work.
He decided to give himself ten more minutes of sitting around to finish his coffee before he would tell that Mr J-something to rearrange for another day or just cancel if he didn't want to put an effort to show up on time, whether Yeosang felt bad for saying it or not.
He started counting the seconds as he watched each colourful umbrella pass by and disappear into the corner where the intersection was, while the sky proceeded to shower.
Five minutes passed and on his third (slow) sip, a sleek sapphire Hyundai parked across the shop and when the door opened, a dark red head peeked from under a black umbrella. Yeosang straightened his posture to get a better look of the person that got off the vehicle. Don't get him wrong, he wasn't some freak who watches over people. He was just checking to make sure.
His doubts went clear when the person closed his umbrella under the cafe's awnings, what comes after, the entrance bell chimed.
Red wavy hair, Burberry patterned shirt, and a black face mask. Yep, this must be the one he's meeting with.
The man scanned the room as Yeosang waved awkwardly when his eyes landed on him, since he figured the other already knew what he looked like, considering the latter got his number from Dahui.
The wine-haired man's eyes lit up before he walked over to his table, as he stood up to exchange bows before they both sat down.
Why is he wearing a mask?? Hwangsa* season is still a month away, isn't it? Yeosang couldn't help but be curious for a moment.
The client took his mask off and revealed a fresh, young face, and Yeosang was blown away because he didn't expect this dude to be around his age when he had almost twice the build of his.
The row of buttons fastened on the slim-fit beige shirt looked tragic somehow, as if they were clinging onto the fabric for dear life not to be torn away by the mighty muscles under them.
"Hello. Mr Yeosang Kang, I presume?" The man stretched out his hand to him.
"Yes, I am."
"Pleased to meet you, my name is Jongho Choi."
-To be continued-
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End-notes:
*rusty old banger slang. - age-old, dilapidated vehicle, but somewhat still working (barely)
*boojang [Kor.] - commonly used title for 'chief's, or someone in charge of a team or a department
*Heol/헐 [Kor.] - a slang-ish exclamation that often translates to 'OMG', mostly used by the younger generation when expressing from mild to medium to sarcastic shock and/or amusement
* Daramjisung (다람지성) - a combination of 'daramjwi' 다람쥐 (which translates to 'squirrel' from Korean), and 'Jisung' 지성.
Yes, nobody in or out of the fandom called him exactly like that, but I do. Because why not ╮(. ❛ ᴗ ❛.)╭ ~~
*Hwangsa or Asian Dust / Yellow Dust, is a pollution phenomenon that often falls in springtime in SK, where particles ('yellow dust') that originated from the deserts of Northern China, Mongolia, and Central Asia fly over a region like a milder(?) form of sandstorm, often last for a few days and during that season people tend to wear masks to protect themselves from fine dust exposure.