"Have you spoken to your sister?"
Baekhyun rolls his eyes, pulling the phone away from his ear. Sitting on the top step of the emergency staircase, safe from his boss's watchful towering presence, he looks down as the backlight on his phone screen flashes with an incoming KakaoTalk message from his sister.
Spoiled Brat: I don't care what she says. I don't care what you say. I am NOT coming home.
With a long sigh he lifts the phone in place and catches the tail end of his Mother's ranting.
"Look... I haven't talked to her. Her crisis is her problem. If she doesn't want to leave America, that's not my problem." He says kindly, patient with his mother as she chews him out over something completely out of his control.
He presses his head into the white metal stairwell railing at his side and closes his eyes against the cool metal. It was nice to hear the familiar chirp of his mother's irritation despite the ring of a headache. He had been processing new information all morning at his new job and it was all a bit overwhelming. The overhead lights are all too white, the temperature too mediated making it stifling, and the silence was eerie. He works with zombies, every single one of them, zombies. How can he work with headphones on with that thought hovering in the back of his mind?
"She was supposed to be back yesterday, Baekhyun. Do you understand? Yesterday was the day her plane was supposed to land. Why is she being so difficult?"
Baekhyun smirks to himself, pulling his feet up one step to wrap his arms around his narrow knees.
"When were we ever not difficult, Mom? We've always been a handful." He reminds her, resting his delicate chin atop one khaki covered knee.
Absently, his mind goes back to the break room, the way his boss had towered over him. Mr. Park is much taller than Baekhyun, and clearly more muscular with his black button down shirt pulling over his lean muscles as he stood over him. His ears stuck out too far, and his eyes were round and dark, making him look considerably less serious than he acted. Maybe, he had been so thrown off by his age and appearance that he didn't show as much respect as he needed. Maybe he was still angry from the phone call he had just ended with his sister. Maybe he's overwhelmed with all of the work. Maybe he had just made an enemy out of his new boss on the first day.
"Mom, I can't stay on the phone all day. I'm at work, you know." He says softly.
"Baekhyun, you cannot protect her forever." His mother says.
That, Baekhyun decides, is not true. He could and he would protect his thoughtless sister for as long as he could. But today, he would not do her any favors. She was adding more stress to an already stressful day.
"I'll call you tonight as soon as I get out of here. Maybe she'll call you before then. Katalk her, she usually responds."
His mother's voice, not too terribly different than his own, but older and more feminine, seems to quiver as she speaks. It has the same rasp to it as his when he starts to laugh, the thick quality when she sings, and the gentleness when she starts to coo. It was comforting and warm.
"I'll talk to you later." He says with some finality.
It's no longer his place to shield her, and yet, he feels the weight of it beating against his spine. Ordinarily he would have been upset at her for causing so much drama but he knew that he was responsible for just as many messes and he would cause more in the future. Standing with a lazy stretch he turns himself around and starts back up the steps. Speaking of creating messes, he still wasn't cure if he'd made one with his attitude towards his current boss. It's better to nip such situations in the bud, intern or not, he can't just waltz around doing as he pleases when working in a proper company. He takes hold of the door handle and takes a deep breath, head tilted to the ceilings as he gathers the words he wants to use. Walking back into the hallway with the elevators humming as they made their way up and down their narrow paths, he decided to be as gentle and humble as possible in the way he approached the situation.
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.
"Oh..." Chanyeol says thoughtlessly.
"Oh?"
Baekhyun knits his brows together and leans forward, crossing his legs, his ID badge slipping forward on his lanyard to brush his knee. Park Chanyeol had never thought his desk was too big before but in this moment, sitting just across from Baekhyun, he felt that there was entirely too much space between them. Baekhyun's fingers are slender and dainty, they move through the air with quick movements, elegant and graceful. A dark brown dot sits just at the base of his thumbnail and he wonders if it was a birthmark or a pen mark from his work. Chanyeol is so confused as his mind tries to process how a boy who looks so much like an angel could act so much like a brat. He should be singing to a holy songbook with wings. Not defiantly leaning back before his boss like an old friend.
"This is a nice office. I think you did a great job decorating it." Baekhyun says, looking around.
"I didn't decorate it. It came like this: already furnished. I'm not good with this kind of thing."
"You're lucky. My father's office is so dull. He has navy blue carpet and grey walls. The furniture is all black. It's the most depressing room I've ever been in." After this little divulgence, Baekhyun looks at Chanyeol with a small-embarrassed smile. "Was that too much information? Sorry. I ramble sometimes."
"You're sorry for rambling? You should be sorry for the tone of your conversation. This is a business setting. This is your job. Do you take this all for granted? Do you thing that I'm a peer?"
Baekhyun lowers his gaze and takes his beautiful fingers into a lace, crossing them pleasantly in a way that made Chanyeol's skin prickle. He takes the stack of white papers on his desk, tapping them into order against the black leather desk mat before grinning over at his computer's dual monitors. He decides that he's doing a pretty good job of making him feel bad, giving a thoughtful silence to invoke Baekhyun's worry. But with a glance at the young man he seems to be composed as ever, eyes narrowed with disinterest.
"Today has not been a good day for me." Baekhyun says point blank when their eyes meet.
"Bad days don't excuse your attitude. You need to be aware of your actions an your attitude. You need to know who the boss is."
"You are." The snotty little intern says matter of factly.
"I am." Chanyeol agrees as sternly as he could, finding that he sounded more like he was trying to convince them both.
"I apologize for the way—"
The phone rings and Baekhyun and Chanyeol both jump. Chanyeol looks as though he is extremely inconvenienced by the unscheduled call but picks up with the normal severity to his cool tone.
"Mr. Do, thank you for your call." Chanyeol says, looking less pleased than he sounds. "The situation with the marriage meeting this morning is not a big deal."
Mr. Do...?
Baekhyun stares at the phone with interest, wishing he could see whom he was talking to. Mr. Do as in Baekhyun's dad's business partner?
"It happens. It couldn't be helped. I look forward to our dinner meeting tomorrow night." Chanyeol seems less like a grumpy idiot and more like a professional suddenly and Baekhyun almost doesn't recognize the man he's made up to be a grumpy jerk. He wonders if this is the side of his father that others see. Is this what he's like? Hen he steps into his work loafers, does he also step into this persona?
"I'm sure everything will work out well." Chanyeol adds. "Yes sir. Okay. Good bye."
And like that, he was into his own again, hanging up and scowling over at Baekhyun.
"What?" Baekhyun mumbles defensively.
"That. Exactly my point. That attitude is the problem."
"What? I was just asking because you looked at me like that."
"Like what? Like an irritated boss? Because that's exactly what I am. I'm irritated."
Baekhyun nods his head with an apologetic look on his face. Chanyeol watches the man before him, his dainty fingers fist and unfist and he notices that sensual spot above his nail again. He can't held but imagine sucking that thumb into his mouth and sucking on it. He can't help but seeing that finger as it travels down his chest, and like that he can imagine Baekhyun unbuckling the silver clasp of his belt, pulling the hugo boss leather belt apart, unfastening his slacks and pulling an already swollen cock into his pretty hands. With the thought of it alone, Chanyeol feels his dick twitching to life beneath the mahogany desk, growing against his navy suit pants as is uncoils into a rod.
"I have quite a lot of work to do. I just came to apologize for my attitude this morning. Can I go?"
"This is your idea of apologizing?"
"I'm genuinely, sincerely, humbly sorry, sir."
"That's not acceptable. It's more condescending than apologetic. Are you mocking me?"
Baekhyun shakes his head no.
"No sir."
"Get back to work before I fire you. I'm writing an email to you supervisor recommending official coaching."
"Coaching on my attitude?"
Chanyeol glares at him across the desk, watching his mouth as it opens slowly, the tender pink flesh pulling apart as sticky pink flesh tears away. His hair looks soft to the touch as he reaches up to stroke his bangs into place. Chanyeol's blood races with a hard pulse towards his thickening member and he slams a hand on his desk.
"Get back to work!" He barks
Baekhyun jumps up suddenly with a frightened expression and trips over the chair as he starts towards the door. Chanyeol mashes the call button repeatedly and Victoria comes racing into the room. Baekhyun stumbles towards where she stands with the door open and bows his head to her as he passes.
"You bow to my assistant but not to me?" Chanyeol yells and Victoria startles, stepping back.
Baekhyun looks at her apologetically and then bows to Chanyeol before racing out of the room.