Chapter Text
“So you guys will flirt with each other so your coworkers will think that you’re straight?” Matthew asked with a reasonable amount of confusion. “I’m sorry Wook but any queer person can smell that you’re a homotron3000 from twenty kilometres away.”
Gyuvin spat out his drink, almost choking on it at the older’s remark. The friends were seated in a Korean BBQ place owned by Gyuvin’s aunt and uncle that the group would frequent. Matthew had invited them there to celebrate Gunwook’s first job.
The boy had signed the documents that he had been given the next day after briefly scanning through them. That same day he had brought them back to the company and handed them to the ever so sweet Miss Boo who had welcomed him to the company family with a warm hug.
“Yeah, no offence dude, but you’re the least straight passing out of us all.” Gyuvin continued to cough from choking.
“Sorry to burst your bubble Gyuvin-ah, but Gunwook Hyung is the only one of you three who ever had a girlfriend. Even though all of you are some version of bisexual.” Gunwook got startled by the sudden voice behind him, but saw that it was Yujin, Gyuvin’s cousin. He sometimes helped his parents in the restaurant and today was no different. He was wearing a white blouse with rolled up sleeves, an apron and held a tray with some empty glasses.
“Yah, Yujin-ah don’t disrespect your Hyung like that!” Gyuvin exclaimed after he noticed that the boy didn’t use honorifics for him. But they all simply ignored him, being used to the two bickering about the use of ‘Hyung’.
“The kid’s got a point unfortunately.” Matthew said bitterly as he shoved a piece of beef from the grill into his mouth, a very hot piece of beef. He was already sour that he had to admit that he was pretty much bitchless, so admitting that eating a piece of meat directly from the grill was a stupid idea, was absolutely not going to happen. So as the entire group looked at him, he had the piece in his open mouth trying to cool it down, making concerning noises while huffing and puffing.
Yujin quirked his eyebrow at the sight, seemingly wanting to say ‘and you wonder why you’re single?’. But instead of saying anything, he walked away. Probably because he was, unfortunately for him, still working.
The boys continued their dinner and chatter when Gyuvin suddenly returned to their previous conversation, “I personally don’t think that one girlfriend of yours in highschool should count. I mean, you were in denial about being trans and Myungjae turned out to be transmasc as well! At the surface it looked like you guys were lesbians but you were just big old homos in denial.” Well, technically he was right, somewhere.
Myung Jaehyun was indeed the chosen name of the trans man he used to date before either of them really figured things out. They both wanted to be seen as masculine, and what more masculine thing was there than dating a girl?
They broke up on good terms, Jaehyun came out as trans first, which made Gunwook question if it was not that same part of himself that he was trying to suppress so hard. They’re still friends today, Gunwook even lived with him for a few months while he was recovering from his top surgery. Jaehyun was currently in Europe studying to become an air traffic controller, so they didn’t see each other often.
“Let’s just conclude that we’re all bitchless okay?” Gunwook almost begged him, he loved his friend but Gyuvin could get competitive on some strange topics from time to time.
Matthew raised his hand at that, “Sorry to interrupt, but I actually have a date with my gym boy next week”, he said with a proud smile, “That’s right, I finally asked him out. We’re going to a ceramic sculpting class and make something for each other.” Both Gyuvin and Gunwook looked at him with open mouths, absolutely shocked at this new piece of information.
Neither of them had actually ever seen this gym-boy, he was always there at the times Gunwook wouldn’t even think about being at the gym. But Matthew enjoyed after midnight workouts, just like his crush apparently. The prospect of an actual date confirmed the existence of the man for the two friends.
As the news had dawned upon them, Gunwook turned to Gyuvin with a mischievous smirk, the other silently dug into his wallet and pulled out a bunch of bills that should add up to 30 thousand won. He handed them over to Gunwook with a sour look.
“Stop talking now and let’s eat before my appetite gets ruined any further.” Matthew looked at them confused but Gunwook signaled him to not get into it.
Once they finished eating, Matthew went up to pay, making sure to leave a big tip for a certain waiter that did not even serve them., “Hyung you don’t have to pay for that brat’s college! My uncle has more than enough money to do it himself!”
The friends bid each other goodbye and walked home to get some sleep before another busy day would start.
“Dude, you can’t think like this so soon! Imagine how he’d feel if his boss asked him out on his first official day, he’d freak the fuck out and quit.” he started, “He has propably heard about that bullshit rumor that you date all your secretaries. And besides, he looks as straight as they come!” Jongwoo was frantically trying to explain with frustrated hand motions.
They were both seated comfortably on Jiwoong’s couch with a glass of white wine in their hands, wearing simple sweats with a hoodie.
Jiwoong just looked at him with a raised eyebrow as he took a sip of wine, not really convinced. “Looks straight? Says the man who only ever dated his masc gay friend because other men aren’t convinced that he’s a flaming homosexual due to his awful style.” he thought back to the time in college when he and Jongwoo dated. He didn’t really know how it happened. They both had finally accepted their queerness and they were best friends, horny and alone, so it made sense to them to date each other. He’s glad they broke up though, they were not supposed to be romantically involved with each other at all. The only thing they did keep doing, was hooking up to calm their urges down. It made their bond even stronger. Though that had decreased drastically in the last few years as well.
Jongwoo turned to his friend with a look of betrayal in his eyes, “Well it’s not my fault that I am too exotic for the regular gays. Besides, I’m dating Seongmin now! He very much likes the way I look, thank you very much,” he snarled.
Jiwoong chuckled at that, “And, remind me again. Who introduced him to you?” he smiled, knowing very well that he introduced the two, but Jongwoo never liked to admit that.
“Also, I’m not stupid, I won’t scare away my incredibly cute and hot secretary by asking him out after we met once. But a little flirting never hurt anyone!”
Jongwoo suddenly remembered something when he heard that last sentence, “Oh yeah! To support my straight theory, I saw your little boy-crush flirting with my new executive manager when you guys were having a meeting. She seemed to like it and she flirted back!” he was convinced now that he had won and his friend would leave this silly crush behind him.
But the man was far from that, “What is this bisexual erasure here? So what if he flirts with a girl? That doesn’t dismiss his possible attraction to men!”
Jongwoo let out a groan while he threw his head back against the couch in defeat. “Whatever, I’m done with this stupid discussion,” he downed the rest of his wine at once and stood up, “I’m claiming the bed by the way, but you can join if you want.” His subtle wink didn’t go unnoticed by Jiwoong.
The blond man chuckled, taking a sip of his own glass as he looked at his friend walking to the master bedroom. ‘Wait, this is my home. Is he stealing my bed, trying to get me to cuddle or is he suggesting more?’ he thought confused.
He decided that he’d join Jongwoo in the bed for cuddles, Jiwoong got cold easily in bed as well. So it was nice to have a personal heater in his bed that he could hug.
To surprise his oh so dear friend, Jiwoong practically jumped on top of the poor man in the bed, startling him, “Yah Kim Jiwoong! You bitch!” he exclaimed as he hit his friend with a pillow. “You should be glad that you’re my boss, otherwise I'd have punched you so hard.”
“But you love me as well, so you can’t hurt me.” the older giggled as he crawled underneath the covers, embracing the other who let out an annoyed sigh.
“Whatever, let’s just sleep. We have that meeting with the charities tomorrow.”
“Park-ssi, if you’d follow me please.” Kim Jiwoong knocked on the younger’s desk while briefly stopping in his tracks. Gunwook looked up and turned his head like a curious puppy which made Kim laugh softly at him.
“Don’t worry you’re not in trouble or anything. But we’re having that meeting with a charity in a bit and I’d like for you to be there to note some things down for me.”
It had been slightly longer than a week since Gunwook had officially started his job. For the most part it was very monotonous and simple work, he quite liked the repetitiveness of it.
Gunwook was quite a messy person when it came to following schedules and such, but he loved making them and would do that perfectly. It never made sense to him why, because he tried so hard to follow them yet he never succeeded. That was until he got diagnosed with autism after his gender therapist had referred to another therapist. It all seemed so obvious now.
Mister Kim never asked a lot from him, just to make schedules and help him get his papers and an occasional coffee or a shared lunch. Kim kept pushing to get lunch together but became way less persistent once Gunwook got the hang of politely rejecting him. He instead ate lunch with Iseul often, having become quite close to her quickly.
“I’ll be right with you sir! I just need to approve this last document real quick.” Gunwook quickly signed the paper in front of him and stored it in the top drawer of his desk before he stood up. “Uhm, sorry but what stuff should I take with me? I’m not sure if you’d prefer me handwriting everything or if I should take my laptop with me.” He confessed in all honesty.
Kim chuckled softly at that, ‘Cute’ he thought. “I think a notepad and a pen should be fine, you only have to write down some details, numbers and dates.” Gunwook nodded, quickly grabbed the aforementioned stuff and followed the man down the corridor.
As they were walking, a pen suddenly shot past Mister Kim from behind, only just missing his leg before it hit the ground. It slightly startled the man.
“I know that you’re nervous for your first meeting, but I assure you that you’ll do great!” Kim bent down and picked it up just to turn around and face his very flustered secretary.
“I-I’m sorry Sir.” He stammered as he accepted the pen with shaky hands, trying his best not to touch his boss's hand while looking at the ground.
‘God he’s so adorable, thank you Yedam for suggesting that I should take him with me to this boring ass hell mandatory meeting.’
“Kim-ssi!” someone called from further up the hall, “It’s been a while, hasn’t it? I remember our last chat being almost three months ago!”
‘Well it certainly hasn’t been long enough.’ Jiwoong thought with a groan, but he smiled and walked up to the man who was previously talking to his own assistant.
“Lee-ssi, well it certainly has been too long!” he started with an unnoticeable sprinkle of sarcasm. “Let’s not make it any longer and start our well due meeting.” He gestured for him to go inside the room.
Gunwook walked in last and closed the door behind him before he looked kind of questioningly at Kim. The man noticed him still standing and pulled the chair next to himself back, tapping his flat hand on the table in front with a small smile playing on his lips.
The boy sat down, still a bit hesitant and on the edge of the seat, pen and paper ready.
“Hoetaek-ssi, may I introduce you to my new secretary, Park? He has been doing an amazing job so far, so I thought it’d be a good idea for him to join our meeting today!”
As he spoke, Gunwook couldn’t really make out what tone the man used, because he was talking very stiff. He did notice that his boss wasn’t the biggest fan of the man in front of them, that much was clear. But he wasn’t sure if his words seemed forced because he didn’t like Mister Lee or because he didn’t think Gunwook deserved the praise he was giving.
‘Amazing my ass, I have barely done anything! The man probably knows that they only hire women, so he has to sell me highly.’
As Gunwook wanted to get up and bow for a formal introduction, Mister Kim laid his hand on his shoulder, a clear ‘Stay down, he doesn’t deserve a bow’ sign. He still looked confused because, yeah his boss didn’t like the man, but that didn’t mean he didn’t deserve some respect.
But he decided to follow his boss’s order and went for a deep nod instead, “It’s good to meet you Sir, I’m just here for noting important details down, so please don’t mind me.”
The man snickered, “It’s good to see that you finally gave up on the women, Jiwoong-ah. I’m excited to see how long this one will last you.”
Gunwook didn’t understand why the man was so degrading towards women, they would also do an amazing job at this surely. And besides, the company didn’t want them to be stuck behind the secretary desk forever if they wanted to do something else. The man’s words angered him, now he understood why Mister Kim probably didn’t like him. Gunwook didn’t know the man for that long, but what he did know, was that he wasn’t one to play with women’s rights.
He looked at the assistant across from him when the man told his ‘joke’ and saw him shake his head and roll his eyes. ‘So his assistant doesn’t like him either, well this’ll be fun.’ he groaned to himself.
“I brought my own boy, Hwanhee, to handle my documents as always.” the man said while slapping the assistant on his back with a firm hit. “Well Hwanhee, what is the first topic that we need to discuss?” He almost demanded.
And with that, the meeting started. Gunwook furiously noted down anything that he deemed important - which was probably more than he should - not missing any details.
Jiwoong saw him and looked at him fondly, being proud of him for taking his job so seriously, a bit too seriously. So when Hwanhee was searching for the next document, the man leaned in to whisper in the boy’s ear, “You can relax a bit, it’s not a formal meeting. You can lean back some more.”
Gunwook turned his face to the man, he didn’t really want to follow that order, but it was what his boss asked from him. So he nodded and sat deeper into his chair and let his back hit the backrest. Only then he noticed how stiff he had been sitting, and that it was actually starting to hurt. He was grateful for his boss telling him to relax, he surely would’ve gotten back pain if he had to sit straight for so much longer.
The rest of the meeting went quite smoothly Gunwook thought - not that he had much to compare it to. But he got the hang of it; he got better at filtering out the actual important information and he wrote it down shorter. Besides the lightly degrading ‘jokes’ from Mister Lee and the boringness of it all; it wasn’t that awful.
At a certain point, Mister Lee drifted away from what they were supposed to talk about, so Gunwook stopped paying attention for a moment. He made a small cartoon-ish drawing of a hamster on his notes to pass the time.
“Don’t forget to write that down, Park.” Gunwook shot up.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t catch that part, could you repeat it for me?” Kim was looking at him expectantly with a small smile decorating his face.
‘Fuck, he noticed that I wasn’t listening and my drawing, I am so fucking fucked.’
But his boss did what he asked and repeated a date and an event name for him to note down. “So November fifteenth, a benefit party at WangTech. You’ll be going with me as well.”
Gunwook looked up confused at that last part, because why the hell would his boss take him to an important benefit party? But he decided not to question it at that moment, not wanting to get into any conflict.
“That should be all for this meeting then.” Lee concluded, “Jiwoong-ah, why don’t we have a little catch up, as friends, it’s been too long!” he grinned widely. Jiwoong cursed in his head, ‘This fuck ass still wants to talk, he won’t shut his mouth about himself and keeps criticising everything I do. Please just go home to your wife and the woman you’re cheating on her with.’
But of course he had to stay professional, “For sure! Let’s grab a drink and walk around.” Both men stood up and walked out, leaving both Gunwook and Hwanhee in the meeting-room.
The older man took the initiative to introduce himself properly, “My name is Lee Hwanhee, nice to meet you.” He reached his hand out, which Gunwook gladly took with both of his own, “Please don’t mind my boss, everyone knows that he’s an asshole. He’s hard to shut up at times like this, so why don’t we grab a coffee of our own and hangout for a bit?”
Gunwook quickly agreed to the offer, his legs were sore after sitting still for so long. Usually he’d bounce his legs and shuffle around a bit but he did his best not to, trying to look professional.
They walked down to the lobby in silence, tired from the busy day they had. As soon as they reached the coffee machine, Gunwook spoke up.
“Why do you still work for him if he’s such an ass? I mean, I barely like my boss at all, if I was you I would’ve quit after a day!” Hwanhee chuckled at him.
“Well it’s kinda difficult to explain, so I won’t. But like, it pays really fucking well and I don’t have to do much, so I don’t care that much.” He signaled for the younger to sit down after both of their drinks were done.
“But you don’t like your boss? Please tell me more about that, because it seems like he feels a different way.” The man took a sip of his coffee with a sleek smile.
Gunwook was confused, “And what do you mean by that? He’s very fake, he doesn’t like me at all. I promise you, if he had the option to, he would fire me. But he can’t because nobody wants the job." He started to bounce his leg like there was a spring underneath it.
“Doesn’t like you? Man are you serious? Don’t you see his desperate flirting attempts and that dumb smile he’s got on his face whenever he looks at you?”
Gunwook burst out laughing, “Flirting? Dude, he’s being degrading, he doesn’t like me and he wants to let me know by being cocky, correcting me and trying to ‘help’.”
“Help you say?” Hwanhee took a long sip, “So picking up your pen, calming your nerves, helping you relax and pay attention when you drifted off for a second. Those are all signs that he does not like you, according to you.”
Gunwook wanted to interrupt the man but he was shut down, “Believe me, I know you think the man is probably a player - and he used to be. But I’ve never seen him like this before, I think he genuinely likes you. He has never comforted any worker by holding their shoulder like he did when we walked in.”
A scoff escaped Gunwook’s mouth, “Yeah, he’s obviously flirting.” he said with a heavy tone of sarcasm.
Suddenly he heard a voice from behind him, “Ohh,who’s flirting with who? Let me in on the drama!” Iseul was standing next to Gunwook, slightly leaning onto his chair.
“I promise, no one is flirting with anyone! Also, shouldn’t you be home already?” It was past five and Iseul did already have all her stuff with her, but she would usually be home by now.
She laughed at how defensive the boy suddenly got, “I just stayed a bit longer to finish something I didn’t want to leave for tomorrow. I’m headed home now”, she laid her hand on Gunwook’s chest and dragged it across to his shoulder, “You should go home soon as well honey, call me when you’re back.” she winked at him and left with a knowing smile on her face.
“Oh is that your girlfriend? I’m sorry dude I didn’t know you were like that-” Hwanhee started but he got interrupted by a loud voice.
“Ah there they are! Good to see that you guys are bonding as well! This will make our business relationship even closer.” That was Mister Lee, he approached the two with Kim in his shadow. Mister Kim looked absolutely exhausted, but Gunwook didn’t know if that was from the long day, or the fact that he had to put up with Lee for so long. Either way, he felt slightly bad for the man.
Mister Lee signalled Hwanhee to stand up, “It was great to be here again, but we should head home now before the rain gets worse. I’m looking forward to seeing you both at Wang’s!”
Both Lees walked out, leaving Gunwook and Kim alone.
Mister Kim cleared his throat like he wanted to say something, the silence was starting to become awkward but Gunwook spoke up first.
“Do you still need me for anything, Sir? I don’t mind staying later than usual. But I still need to pick up some medication today that can’t wait until tomorrow, and the pharmacy is closing soon.” In all the stress of his job, he had forgotten to pick up his testosterone. Being two days late for his shot, he already started to feel his exhaustion and headache rise.
Jiwoong didn’t expect the boy to be so straight forward, usually he kept to himself a lot, “Oh yeah, no, of course you can go! I just wanted to ask you if you had a ride home, it’s pouring outside. And you usually walk.”
Gunwook only just noticed now when he looked out the window; the black night sky was covered with dark clouds and the heavy rain could be heard loudly splashing against the building.
‘Well that isn’t gonna be fun to walk around in.’ He mentally cursed.
“I don’t, actually, but I’ll be fine. Thank you for your concern. If that’s everything, I’ll take my leave now.” He got up, bowed to his boss and paced to the elevator to get his jacket from his desk.
Kim quickly followed him and shoved his arm between the elevator door before it could completely close with just Gunwook inside.
“I’ll drive you,” was the first thing the blond man said once they started moving up, “It’s dangerous to walk with this weather and I can’t have you getting sick.” he looked at Gunwook, who stared down at his own dress-shoes like they were the most interesting thing in the room, “That’s not a question, by the way. I know you don’t accept help easily, but this is an order, you’re getting in the car with me.”
The boy’s head shot up at that last part, he wanted to fight him on it, saying that he ‘won’t need a ride, I’m used to it’ but once he saw his boss’s expression, he knew he couldn’t win. Instead just sulking, “Sir, I appreciate your concern about my wellbeing, but this will only be a one time thing.”
‘I hope not, but we’ll see.’ Jiwoong just nodded with a content smile.
The walk from the office to the parking lot below the office was silent, everyone had already left, only the duo’s footsteps echoing rhythmically through the empty building.
Kim signalled for Gunwook to walk to a black Nissan Quashqai and get into the passenger's seat while he himself entered on the other side.
“To the pharmacy and then your home?” The boy just nodded and gave the man the directions to their first stop.
“Wait!” Gunwook was about to step out of the car once they arrived at the building but his boss stopped him, the man reached into the backseat of the car, “Please take this umbrella, I know it’s just a few metres but still, I’d rather have you stay dry.”
He accepted the umbrella, “Thank you, Sir”, and walked into the rain with its protection above his head.
As Gunwook walked inside, he shook the water off. Even with the umbrella he got wet from the wind blowing the rain sideways into him and from the puddles on the sidewalk's pavement. He never liked medical settings like these, it was always cold, both in temperature and ambiance, and the lighting way too bright.
“Paggeon! There you are!” A warm smile behind the counter greeted him; Jay. He came from the US to Korea a few years ago to study medscience and took a job at the pharmacy for his internship. Jay was the only reason why Gunwook ever bothered to pick up his prescriptions himself instead of letting them be delivered. He always brightened his day a bit more, especially with the nickname he had given him; Paggeon, a butchered pronunciation of the first two syllables of his name.
“I was already wondering if something happened to you! It’s not usual for you to be so late.” The golden retriever boy sulked, “Are you having any withdrawal signs? I can give you something for the headache and for exhaustion! I’m sure your head must be spinning by now. Is everything okay? Neither Matt nor Gyuvin came to pick it up either so I thought-” Jay started to absolutely bombard him with questions, Gunwook started to laugh at his concern.
“Dude, don’t worry I’m okay, I really am. I’ve just been busy with work, and my exhaustion and headache are probably from that as well.” he flashed a genuine smile at the guy who dropped his shoulders in relief, “Someone is waiting for me in the car though, so I can’t be here for too long.”
Jay’s eyes widened like he got jumpscared, “Oh yeah, shit sorry”, he turned around and rummaged in the cabinet behind the desk before turning back around, “Someone in the car huh?”
He suddenly smirked, “Gyuvin doesn’t have a license yet and you don’t trust Matt enough…” he leaned over the counter and rested his chin on his hand, “Is there maybe finally some action in your life?”
Even though Gunwook wanted to whack the guy for being annoying, he found it quite goofy how Jay wiggled his eyebrows and bit his bottom lip. He couldn’t suppress his laughter, “Me action? Come on, you know better than that! No, it’s just my boss, he insisted on driving me home.”
Jay’s grin got wider, if that was even possible, “Oh, your boss huh? Didn’t think you’d be that kind of worker.”
Gunwook rolled his eyes at the remark. He yanked the bag with his medication from the blond’s hand, who let out a loud crackle. Before he started to walk out.
“That reaction means that they are hot!” the worker yelled after him. Gunwook decided to not get into it further and just waved before stepping back into the rain.
Once he sat back down in his seat and buckled up, Jiwoong started, “You know, you don’t have to call me anything formal outside of work.” The man was nervously fidgeting with his fingers on the wheel Gunwook noticed, “I’d actually prefer it if you could just call me Hyung, and maybe even by my first name if you’re okay with that.” The last part was said so softly that Gunwook almost didn’t hear it over the sound of cars driving through the flooded road next to them.
The boy only nodded as an answer, “Left on the second traffic light and then just straight until the blue neon sign.” Kim silently followed his directions.
When they reached the earlier mentioned light, it sprung to red just before they could pass it. Jiwoong wanted to lift the mood between them, “I liked the hamster you drew during the meeting, it looked cute.”
The boy let out a small giggle, he didn’t expect to hear that from his boss’s mouth.
“Honestly, I thought you’d scold me for that Si- Hyung…”
Jiwoong hid the smile that appeared on his face from the newly appointed title by looking over his shoulder while making the turn once the light finally jumped to green.
“Nah, I really don’t mind stuff like that. Everyone should be able to practise their artistic freedom, even at work. As long as you’re not drawing the new Mona Lisa when you should be paying attention, I won’t mind some small doodles,” his plan had worked, the heavy air in the car was cleared away, “I’d even say things like that lift my mood.”
The rest of the short ride was filled with a small conversation about art and Gunwook struggling to call the man by a different title from what he was used to. He found out Jiwoong enjoyed more modern and free art, but he loved Greek and Roman mythology inspired art the best. It was ‘More intriguing’ in his words.
At some point a small ‘ping’ was heard, Gunwook quickly checked his phone and saw that Iseul had texted him something about a ‘potential love interest?’ with a curious looking emoji, but he decided to text back later.
The car stopped when Gunwook said that they were at his building.
“Please take the umbrella with you for the last part, I won’t need it today or tomorrow morning.” The boy smiled thankful at his boss, it had started raining even harder than before, and he wasn’t planning on getting soaked two minutes before getting home.
“Thank you for the ride, but again this was a one time thing. I don’t want to bother you more than I already do,” Jiwoong just nodded, “I’ll see you tomorrow then Jiwoong Hyung.”
The blond watched him jump out of the car and speed walk to the door, he didn’t leave until he saw that Gunwook made it safely inside.
“Dude, you should’ve seen him! He was so cute when I talked about his drawing. And wait, oh my god, did I tell you that he called me Jiwoong Hyung?” he was driving home and called up Jongwoo while giggling like a schoolgirl who got noticed by her crush.
“Yes, you did. You legit asked him to call you that, so of course he’ll call you that.” Jongwoo physically and mentally facepalmed, “Go giggle about your cute little boy crush at home, I’m having some boyfriend time - because I’m in an actual relationship. So I’m gonna hang up. Bye loser.”
Jiwoong felt almost offended by his friend dismissing him like that, but he understood, he always had to hear the same stuff when Jongwoo and Seongmin were in the talking stage. He swore he could hear his friend’s boyfriend laugh at him in the background before he got hung up on.
“Wookie-boy!” Gunwook got jumped by Gyuvin the second he set foot in his apartment, “There you finally are!” He tried to kiss his friend on his cheek but Gunwook took the lower part of his face into a firm grip to prevent that from happening.
Gyuvin sulked and let the man out of his arms, “I just missed you,” he sulked not very convincingly, “You were supposed to be home way earlier! Matthew and his boyfriend will get here in like half an hour.”
Oh yeah, he completely forgot; they had arranged a sleepover at his place today so Matthew could introduce his gym-situationship turned boyfriend to them. It had gone fast, they made it official directly after their ceramic class date. And because of their clashing work hours, Gunwook had to hear all the details that he didn’t want to hear, from Gyuvin.
He groaned, “Fuck, okay, if you tidy everything a bit more and get the pizzas out of the freezer already, then I’ll go and shower real quick.”
When Gunwook stepped out of the shower, he heard voices coming from the living room, ‘Shit they’re here early.’ He hurriedly dried himself and when he deemed himself dry enough, he jumped into a pair of gray sweats and a black t-shirt. Gyuvin yelled from the other side of the door that he needed to hurry, so he grabbed a small towel to dry his hair further as he left the bathroom.
There he saw his two best friends standing with a third, objectively shorter, guy. Matthew saw him standing there a bit lost, so he signed for him to come over.
“Wookie, come here! I’m so excited to finally introduce you guys!” He hugged his friend like he hadn’t seen him in a while and took his hand to guide him next to the other guys.
“So, Gyuvin, Gunwook” he said while motioning to each of them, “this is my boyfriend, Yedam.” he took the shortest guy into his arms and that’s when Gunwook looked at the man’s face for the first time that night - he didn’t really like looking others in the eyes so he’d usually look over their shoulder or something.
“Ya, welcome to the group!” Gyuvin exclaimed and almost ripped the poor man from his boyfriend’s arms to embrace him as well, “Mashu said that you’re older than us, can we call you Hyung?” He sounded like an excited puppy meeting a new possible friend.
Yedam laughed at him, “Yes, of course you can!”
During this entire encounter, Yedam and Gunwook locked eyes when they realised who the other was. The youngest opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but the other shook his head minimally and mouthed ‘No’, while still in Gyuvin’s arms.
“Gyub! Let the poor guy go before you kill him with your tight hugs!” Matthew giggled at Gunwook’s sudden remark.
The boy reluctantly let go with a pout on his face and stepped back so his friend could properly greet him as well. Gunwook wasn’t too sure on what to do; a hug felt too personal for the guy who hired him, and a handshake would be too formal. So he settled on dabbing the man up and a mutual hit on the back.
“It’s good to finally meet you, I heard lots about you!” He wanted to make clear to Yedam that he heard quite literally everything there was to be told about his relationship.
Matthew clapped in his hands excitedly, “Good everyones met each other, now let's put in the pizzas and pick a movie!” He dragged Gunwook with him to the kitchen and told Gyuvin to take Yedam to help choose a movie.
The food had to stay in the oven for at least another twenty minutes and the guys didn’t want to start the movie without dinner on their lap yet, so they decided to play a game of Uno to pass the time. They all had a drink in front of them while Matthew handed out the cards, it had to be a quick game, so everyone only got five.
As the game gradually started, conversations came up as well.
“Yo, Wook-ah, how come you were so dry when you came home? It was fucking pouring during the time you should’ve left! Ain’t no way you walked all the way, you don’t even have an umbrella!” Gyuvin asked while laying two cards onto the play stack, suddenly realizing his friend usually just got home wet if it was raining.
Gunwook looked at his cards to see if he could play any, trying to stay casual while answering, “Oh, my boss insisted on driving me back. He can’t have me getting sick." He couldn’t play anything so he drew a card, signalling to Matthew that it was his turn.
“Your boss, mhmm?” Yedam mumbled, he sat straight across from Gunwook, “Seems like a nice and caring fella then.” he looked at the youngest with a strange smirk on his face which Gunwook couldn’t place that well. The others also looked interested in the new subject, but didn’t say anything.
“Yeah, he’s chill I guess, but he doesn’t really like me. Uno!” The boy hid his last card underneath the table, preventing Gyuvin from cheating. “That’s unfair!” the lanky boy yelled.
Yedam threw a plus four in the stack, “I’m out!” but Gyuvin started complaining that you can’t end on a foul card. But the man insisted that these were the rules he always played by, and sulkily the boy grabbed the cards, throwing one of them onto the stack, allowing Gunwook to play his own last card.
“No, that's just cheating!” Both Matthew and Gyuvin still had a few cards, so they’d play for ‘last loser’ as they called it.
Gunwook stood up, “The pizzas should be done soon so I’ll check on those.” He walked to the kitchen and noticed Yedam had followed him.
After quickly checking and concluding that they should stay in slightly longer, Gunwook turned around and faced the man.
“So…” they both started awkwardly. Gunwook gestured for the other to speak first.
Yedam nodded, thankful for getting to have his say first, “So first of all, Matthew doesn’t know exactly where I work, and especially not that I work with you.” he spoke quite calmly, which the boy appreciated very much, he himself would’ve started rambling.
“I didn’t even know you guys knew each other, he did mention you by name before I met you for the interview but I didn’t make the connection. Also, I’m completely cool with not telling him that we’re under the same company if that makes you more comfortable.”
Gunwook wasn’t sure what to answer so he just turned around, “The pizzas are done, would you mind handing me the oven mitts?”
They took the pizzas out, and put them back onto the carton boxes to use as plates, without any further words. They should be headed back to the others now, hearing Gyuvin’s loud victory from the living room, but Gunwook finally decided to speak up, “I mean, I don’t mind him knowing at all, just not that you’re the one who hired me. I don’t want him to see you as someone possibly transphobic for hiring me.”
Before Yedam could even react to that, Gunwook had already walked out with two of the pizzas in his hand. So he just followed with the last two.
“Gyuvin, you had salami right? Then the Hawaiian should be for Matt.” Everyone got handed their food and they all settled down on the couch or in front of it to start the movie. Gyuvin had convinced the others to watch the new Deadpool movie.
“You guys were away for some time there. What’d y'all talk about?” Matthew looked at the guys with a questioning grin on his face.
The two exchanged a quick glance at each other, Yedam nodded to him, before Gunwook spoke, “Oh just work, me and Hyung work at the same company. Nothing too important.”
The puzzled expression on the canadian’s face quickly changed into an almost sadistic smile, “Wait, if y’all work together, that means he knows about your boss-” he couldn’t speak any further as he was smacked into his face with a pillow by Gyuvin who sat on the ground.
“Ya! Mashu Hyung we can do the gossiping another time. It’s movie night today!”
The man accepted his defeat easily and they watched their movie peacefully before they all fell asleep in places spread over the apartment.
All of them but the apartment's owner, Gunwook couldn’t stop thinking about what Yedam said about their boss during their Uno game. Yeah his boss was nice to him, but that was because he probably can’t work without a secretary. He still couldn’t shake the feeling that maybe, just maybe, Yedam knew something more than he did. Also taking Hwanhee’s words into his overthinking.
Eventually he fell into a troubled sleep on his own bed with Gyuvin awkwardly spread on top of him.