CHAPTER 5: You Work For Me Now
// "I keep getting this feeling that you're so familiar. I just want to ask; have I seen you somewhere before?" //
~*~
“L-Levi…?” Eren heard himself ask, the sound of his rapid heartbeat thumping loudly in his ears.
Levi seemed so close to Eren, he could feel the heat radiating off of Levi already at this distance. Slowly lifting his eyes to meet Levi’s coal-black orbs, the smirk he caught on Levi’s lips only made him fluster for some reason. He swore he could feel Levi get closer by the second! Closer and—
“Follow me to my office tomorrow.” Levi stated simply, eyes boring into his own. Taking Eren’s sudden blur, he continued, “You’re going to work for me from tomorrow onwards.”
He turned his back to Eren and pushed his gloved hands back into the pockets of his coat.
“Since I know that even if I were to ask you to go back to school, you wouldn’t listen. I might as well offer you a solution to your problem.”
Eren finally reacted. “E-EH?! I’ll be working for you?!”
“Yeah, don’t expect me to repeat it again.” Levi scoffed, panning his eyes over to the corner where he saw a group of the workers starting to huddle up together.
“Bu—“ Eren wanted to say something, but he got cut off as Levi suddenly pulled him close by the arm and practically dragged him back to his car.
By now, Levi already showed how he obviously did worry for Eren’s well-being. But for some reason, he still didn’t want to explore into the reasons why he did so; he wasn’t sure whether it would be a good choice to. He pushed Eren into the convertible, not too roughly, but not that gently either. Just as he was getting into his own seat, the group of workers came storming over at them.
“So predictable”, he thought. His hands moved quickly; the car drove away before they could reach it.
Glancing at the rear-view mirror, he could see them trying to catch up and throwing random stuff at his car, but missed. Eren shot a glare behind his shoulder at them. That caused Levi to cock an eyebrow; he couldn’t help but have the thought of how Eren brought trouble— No, rather, how trouble always had a way of finding Eren and following him wherever he went. To think, it was true that after Eren came into his life, he constantly got tossed into many troubling situations that shook his normally calm life.
His eyes moved back to Eren beside him.
And, deep inside he knew, he liked the way Eren’s presence colored his life. Eren was something new that made him feel interest and maybe a hint of…something else in his life. With Eren working for him now, it would definitely be brighter.
~*~
He wasn’t pleased, his mood was dangerous again, and his glare was deadly when focused on the brunette with a ponytail- who had waltzed into his office, literally, and made herself comfortable by playing around with Eren.
Levi growled. Why Hanji got so interested in Eren the moment he entered was just obvious. But, he didn’t like the way she kept his day packed with her teasing and rants. Sure he had foreseen this happening a million miles away, but it was still completely irritating when it did.
“Eren~ Do you have a moment~?” she swung her hand around said teen’s shoulder and lazed about beside his desk right in front of Levi.
“A-Ah yes, Hanji-san—“
“No. He’s busy.” Levi bit out, “Go do your own work, you shitty four-eyes.”
“No…. That’s no fun, Levi!” Hanji whined in his office, hands still glued onto Eren.
A vein popped on Levi’s forehead from watching them. He got up from his place, “I said go! He has a lot of work to do for me.”
He was lucky that she actually had quite a lot of things to be done today. She shot him a smirk. Pulling back from Eren, she sighed and scratched the back of her head as she started walking out. “Yeah, yeah Levi… But I’ll be back later to have fun with Eren okay?” her face masked into something that was pretty creepy and waltzed back out from Levi’s office. The door closed behind her, but her laughter rang around the whole office.
“You seem happy, Hanji.”
The blonde CEO of the company with that ever-calm smile on his ever-calm face showed an amused expression at her enthusiasm. He was actually going to go to Levi’s office for some important discussion when he caught sight of her.
“Of course, Erwin! You should have seen the way Levi acts around Eren!” she whispered excitedly to him with a smirk and a thumbs-up.
“It’s just so obvious for us to see but what’s fun is that he doesn’t realize it!”
“That’s interesting.” Erwin turned his amused look toward Levi’s closed office. “I’d like to give it a look myself, really.”
Hanji’s eyes glinted, “Go ahead!” she started laughing again and headed off to her own office. “I have to go, though! Tata~”
KNOCK! KNOCK!
“Come in already, Erwin. What’s the point for you to stand out there?” Erwin chuckled at the predictability of Levi’s answer before he even entered the office.
He was surprised, however, when he did enter. The first thing he saw was Eren bent over Levi’s desk while Levi stood behind the teen. He watched for a moment and shifted his eyes to Levi, an amused question showing behind those pale orbs of his.
Levi frowned irritably, followed by a scoff.
“The boy already made his first slip up on the first few hours of working here. He spilled coffee on my table and a little onto my chair.”
“S-Sorry, Levi!” Eren apologized, bending over again to wipe the stains away.
“Tch. What business do you have here, Erwin? More assignments for me?” Levi asked.
“Well this…unique situation aside, I do have some jobs for you, but I remembered you called me last night regarding a matter you wish to settle?” Erwin asked, a little extra formally.
Levi understood and looked at Eren, “Eren, leave us for a moment.”
“Y-Yes sir!” he rushed out quickly, as ordered.
Erwin’s smile morphed into a smirk after he heard the door to Levi’s office click shut.
“I can see you are certainly softer toward that boy…” he chuckled softly but decided to change the topic when he saw Levi’s face: “About what you asked me to do yesterday….”
~*~
Eren could hear very distant talking in Levi’s office. He frowned. His life was pretty much a tornado right now; all rushed and mixed up altogether. And now he was wondering what sort of top secret ‘matter’ Levi had wanted to discuss with Erwin. Well, it’s not like he was nosy and just wanted to know. He understood that some matters didn’t concern him- or any of the other workers in fact. Those matters involved with the bosses only. But he still found himself wondering; there was a weird questioning in his heart.
“Oh, hi!”
Eren turned his head in surprise. He saw a girl with strawberry-blonde locks. She had a kind face topped with that kind smile of hers.
“You’re the new temporary secretary?” she asked politely, watching him closely. He was so familiar… she was sure she saw him somewhere before…?
“Yup,” Eren smiled back, “I’m pretty sure that’s me. Just call me Eren.”
She was half-way to a nod when a memory flashed in her mind. That’s it! Eren… he was the boy she saw with Levi outside the office the other day. And, she kept hearing his name from Hanji for the few days after. This was interesting; she wondered why Levi employed him to work here- he looked very young for this sort of job.
“Nice to meet you. I’m Petra. I’m also part of Boss Levi’s department in this company—“
“Oi, Petra! What are you doing there?” a guy suddenly came up behind her. He had pale hair and his eyes looked somewhat droopy. There was an arrogant vibe surrounding him, though.
“Hurry up, we’re going to be late.” He barked and pulled the stack of papers out of her hand before walking away again, completely ignoring Eren as if he was oblivious to his presence.
“Ah well, duty calls!” Petra turned to Eren with an apologetic smile and dashed off after the guy. He could hear a distant call of “Auruo, wait!”
Eren watched her go and sighed. Scratching his head and glancing at Levi’s –still closed- office door, he was starting to feel that everyone in this building was rather….unique in a way. When he first entered the office that day, Hanji had already started pulling him along everywhere with that same crazed glint shining in her eyes. And, she tended to enjoy using him to push Levi’s temper.
Then after that, he met another superior, Mike, who apparently enjoyed sniffing people whom he just met. It was awkward, to say the least, when Mike gave him a good whiff. The smirk he showed after that didn’t help.
And Erwin- can’t forget him. The highest of this department in the company, but Eren felt that he wasn’t truly all of how he presented himself to everyone with that ever-thoughtful expression he wore.
How the hell did things turn out this way in the first place? Eren wondered in silence. He hadn’t planned to get so involved with Levi at all- but he just kept bumping into the male coincidentally… and continuously. It was as if some sort of string or magnet kept them stuck to each other’s life. He frowned- when thought over, Eren realized that each encounter he had with Levi resulted in him needing to rely on said male. He didn’t want to be a burden that just troubled people! But, this job offer was one of the best he could ever have gotten.
He got a little too caught up in thinking that he couldn’t move out of the way in time when something hard crashed into him.
He fell on his butt and winced slightly.
“Hey, watch it!” Eren heard someone holler.
Say what? Eren was the one being bumped into here, not the other way around! His temper rose and it showed clearly on his face as he looked up. Light brown hair came into view; the guy looked a little taller than Eren but seemed around the same age. He had a face that reminded Eren of a horse (for some unknown reason).
“What?” Eren snapped, “You bumped into me.” He dragged the last sentence out to make a point.
“Well, you wouldn’t move out of the way! Don’t blame me for knocking you down!” he growled back.
Eren jumped to his feet and took hold of the other’s shirt, glaring angrily.
“It’s sure as hell your fault!”
“You wouldn’t move!”
“You could have avoided me!”
“Asshole!”
“Horse-face!”
“Wha—“
“What the hell is going on here?”
Both guys stopped immediately. That voice was just oh-so familiar. Slowly, they looked to their side; sure enough, the calculating look they received made them push each other away.
“He started it!” they yelled simultaneously.
“The two of you better stop acting like little boys fighting because of some dumb toy and get back to your post. You’re polluting the entire office with your noise.” Levi didn’t sound amused at all. Behind him, they saw Erwin walk away with a chuckle.
“Jean, get back to your post before I give you another stack of work to do.” He jerked his head to one of the desks further down front. The guy, who was apparently named Jean, bowed and rushed off.
“And you,” Levi looked at Eren, “Come in to my office now. I need to ask you something.”
“Woah, no lecture?” Eren thought in his mind with a mental sigh of relief and nodded, quickly following the instructions.
Levi sat down behind his big desk again once the door was closed and observed Eren emotionlessly; his eyes flickered to the file Erwin had placed neatly on his desk for a split of a second.
Crossing his fingers together on the desk, he watched Eren’s reaction. “As a personal my secretary, you need to understand the things that are going around my department.”
Eren nodded slowly, feeling a little nervous suddenly. Why did the atmosphere feel so thick with tension?
“Beforehand, I want to show you something to clear it up for both of us.” Levi picked up the file previously and pulled out a photograph. He put it on the table and pushed it forward for Eren to see.
Eren took a look at it, and his breath immediately caught in his throat. That was…
TO BE CONTINUED...
[Author's Note: OMG, already 1k+ reads?! *cries tears of joy* And almost 100 votes?! *drowns in my tears* Thank you sooooo much for supporting me! I feel so happy about this achievement! I honestly hadn't expected to reach this much, but I just want to give you all a big hug right now for all the support you've given me, and for helping me achieve this! I hope all of you will stay as awesome as ever, and continue to enjoy the chapters I publish weekly! I'll do my best to please you!
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