You woke up early that morning. The house felt a lot bigger without Yoongi's footsteps wandering around in it.
Still, you got up and got ready the same as always. Breakfast, clothes, out the door. The one difference was that you picked up Yoongi's briefcase before leaving. Jin was already parked outside.
He was unusually quiet on the drive to work. You weren't sure if it was because his mind was wandering or if he'd noticed yours was. You would have to be at the top of your game today to keep things running smoothly.
"I'll see you for lunch," Jin said.
You hesitated. You hadn't planned on leaving the office until your work was done. But one look at him told you there was no room for argument.
"Okay. Thanks."
Sun gave you a smile as you walked in.
"You're here early," you commented.
"I got up early. Didn't have anything else to do," she explained. You gave her a wary look but decided not to comment on that. You couldn't exactly criticize her over it. If anything, it was better for you if she was here early.
When you got to your office, you shook your head in disbelief.
"Not you too."
"What?" Namjoon countered. "You've got reports to run, so I'm here to pick up the slack."
The tall man was already sitting at his desk, shuffling papers to pretend he was busy. It was obvious that he and Sun had conspired to beat you here and help you out. You had no idea how they'd done it, but it was sweet in its own way.
"Thanks."
He smirked. "Just doing our jobs."
You walked into your office and did a quick check-list. The other employees knew that Yoongi was out. His office was locked. You'd convinced one of the IT guys, Kyuhyun, to set it up so that his emails copied to your inbox and his phone rang to yours as well.
"Don't answer right away," he'd explained to you. "Let it ring a couple of times like it had to be redirected."
"Have you done this before?"
He only offered you a sheepish shrug in return. The IT technician was nefarious for playing pranks when he was bored. That was probably one of him. You wondered whose phone he'd switched.
But that wasn't important right now. You had emails to deal with, calls to answer, and reports to run just like Namjoon had said.
You figured you'd start with the calls. You went through the messages and called back the ones you could take care of yourself. Any others, you forwarded to the right departments. You were working on your emails when there was a sharp knock on your door.
"Heechul, what can I do for you?" you asked, barely looking up from your work.
"Department leads meeting?" he prompted you.
Shit.
"I'll be right there." As soon as you stood up, the phone rang. "Namjoon, can you--?"
"On it."
Heechul glanced at him as you walked past. "Must be nice sleeping with the boss."
You took everything Heechul said with a grain of salt. Everyone did because only half of what he said was genuine. The other half was meant to tease and get a rise out of people. But you knew this statement came from the truth.
That's how most of the employees around here saw you. That you'd always been favored by the boss. That you got what you wanted when others were denied. Getting an actually competent assistant was just the latest in a long list.
The department heads were the exception as they saw how hard you worked to keep things running smoothly. Whether or not the boss was there, you were always going all in and that spoke to them.
Heechul led the way up to the conference room where the other department heads were already gathered.
"Sorry to keep you waiting," you said as you settled in next to Amber. Heechul took his place at the podium.
"All right. Obviously, we're missing our director, but I'm sure we can muddle through one meeting without him."
A few chuckles escaped at the joke. You spent the next two hours doing your best to hash out departmental concerns amongst yourselves. This meeting was long overdue and it was the first time in a while that all of you had been in the office at once. You had to see what you needed to be improving on within in your departments and as a team.
IT was going to be sending out phishing and scam email training again as they'd found a concerning amount of risky bugs in computers when running cleanups. Each head was going to have to make sure their department completed it.
One of the shipping department's conveyors was wearing down and it was causing some backups in shipping. They were going to be prioritizing expedited orders and then others were just going to have to be sent when they could. Sungjin sent you an apologetic glance at that.
You shrugged it off; dealing with complaints was part of your job. Amber had a thousand ideas for new marketing strategies but she was waiting for budget approval to see what she could manage. Jackson was still scrounging up new sales clients and pitching ideas of what they could offer to keep new customers coming back again. HR was concerned about the potential of employee dating. Again. All of you tried to ignore the same speech you'd heard dozens of times before.
Finally, it was over and you all broke off back to your separate departments. You were nearing your office when Namjoon suddenly caught your arm.
"Not so fast. It's lunchtime."
"Joon, I have a lot to do--"
"And you need energy to do it. Go on, the office won't burn down without you."
And before you could protest, he'd turned you around and started herding you to the elevator again. Jin was already waiting for you in the lobby, talking animatedly to Sun about something. Food no doubt.
Without even saying where you were going, Jin led you outside to the car and started driving. He seemed sure of where he was going, and his smile only got larger the closer you got to your destination.
Eventually, he stopped the car. "Recognize this place?" he asked through the rear-view mirror. You glanced out the window and frowned thoughtfully. You were sure you'd never been here.
"No?"
"Well, come inside and I'm sure you will." You turned around to see that he was already getting out.
The minute you stepped inside, the smell of cooking food hit your nose and you realized you were really hungry. You glanced around for any sign of something familiar and came up short. The light tan walls, the dark brown tables and chairs, the layout with a small bar in the back. None of it was looking familiar.
"Are you sure--?"
"Hi, can I help you?" a familiar voice asked. You locked eyes with none other than Mina.
"Mina! Is...this your family's restaurant?"
She beamed. "Yes! I've been wondering when you'd stop by."
"I've been meaning to, really."
She waved your apologies aside and led you over to a table in the back. "Can I recommend a few things to get you started?"
And soon you two were eating some of the best food you'd had in a while. Mina continued to come by to check on you and you told her to compliment the chef several times over.
"See why I wanted to bring you here?" Jin mumbled through a mouth full of food. "Good food does wonders."
After you'd finished clearing your plates, you asked Mina about paying.
"Oh, I thought you'd put it on the tab."
"There's a tab here?" you asked.
"Jungkook keeps one. Yoongi's used it a few times and he doesn't seem to mind, so I thought you'd know about it."
"Sounds like a plan to me. Let's put it on the tab." She was quick to do as you asked.
Jin snickered to himself.
After making it back to the office, you started drowning in work. Emails had been piling up while Namjoon had been taking phone calls. And now that you were back in, you were having to answer the calls, handle emails, go over the information from the department lead meeting, and work through at least some of the quarterly reports. Yoongi had finished entering most of them but not all of them before he left.
Twice, Namjoon had watched you throw open your door and start pacing up and down the hallway, muttering darkly to yourself. After a few minutes, you'd return to your office and start again.
At closing time, he peered into the room to see you still working away.
"Hey, it's time to leave."
"I have to finish these reports."
"But--"
"I need to finish these reports so we can start looking at the information there." You glanced up at him. "It won't take long. Once I'm done, I'll leave. Promise."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah. See you tomorrow."
You spent the next forty-five minutes going over the reports. Something was off about them. It took quite a bit of research but the sales numbers were down while marketing was up.
Usually, those numbers would be similar, both going up or down. To have one be different was...unheard of before. New clients weren't coming in despite Amber's marketing strategies.
Your thoughts were interrupted by your phone buzzing. Jin politely informing you that he was still waiting outside. You scribbled a note to yourself to check the reports again tomorrow and locked your office.
Jin didn't seem nearly as annoyed as his text made him seem. But he did look tired and you apologized on the ride home.
"It's okay," he assured you. "It's obvious that you care about your work. Just don't tell Yoongi I let you stay this late."
"It'll be our secret."
The ride continued on for a few minutes in silence. You glanced at Jin to say something when you saw it.
Something bright heading straight towards him.
"Jin, look out!"
He had apparently seen the lights out of the corner of his eye. You felt the car move sharply as he wrenched the wheel in the opposite direction. But a few moments later, there was the sound of tires squealing and a sickening crunch.
Glass shattered. Your head slammed into the window and your ears started ringing.
You leaned forward, trying to ease the sound.
Someone wrenched open your door. You turned away from the bright light that invaded your senses.
"Ma'am, are you all right?" The person gently leaned you back so they could remove your seat belt.
Your eyes landed on the front seat. Jin was sprawled out over the wheel. "Jin! Jin, are you okay?"
You went to move toward the front seat but your vision started swimming. You groaned and held your head in your hands.
"He's out cold!" Someone else called out. You could see lights moving around the driver's door. They must be checking on him too.
"Shit. Ma'am, is it just the two of you?"
"Yes," you muttered. "He was driving me home."
"Does your head hurt?"
Your head? You went to touch it and felt something warm and wet. Your head was bleeding.
"Here." He pulled off his coat and bundled it up. "Hold this against your head for now. We already called the ambulance so just stay with me until then."
He talked with you until the police and ambulance arrived. A paramedic took you away and did a quick check.
Suddenly a horrible sound reached your ears. The sound of the metal crunching. They had to pry Jin out of the car. You couldn't tear your eyes from the scene. The last thing you remembered clearly was the sight of him being put in the ambulance.
Then it all went black.