Chapter Text
Ignorance is bliss, and a bitch, a popular universal truth, but hey, if that bitch has aided you to slap a quarter of your life with a big bold try me placard by your inner self-uplifter and has made you immune to this oh-so-evil humankind, you would believe the power of ignorance is not just a bliss but a fucking blessing. And that, unfortunately, it seems only a chosen few possess.
Hence by laws of the hypothetically giving-a-fuck universe, Kim Taehyung just so happens to be one of the few elites. Not even moral-shattering curses faze him anymore.
On the most recent occasion—that is right now—his ignorance can also be replaced with the fact that he’s running so he doesn’t really have much fuck to give to peers turning around from all directions to look at him.
And while that on a calmer day might reassure his questionable fashion choices, today he knows, he knows his homeless haggard persona with his hair flying up in every direction possible and his flaring nostrils, is a sight to behold amongst the pristine populace around him.
You see it was not his fault when he decided to blindly trust his smiley, ‘ Oh you jokester you ’ (while slapping his arm), and over-friendly new neighbor who had provided him with the bus schedule since he (was new to the city and) happened to be looking for it.
Not a single one of the two buses he took followed the route as mentioned in the guidebook and all he did this morning was spin around in circles and not even come close to where he was headed. In hindsight, he did get an unnecessary and economical tour of the city he’s going to be living in but he really doesn’t want to be looking at the positives here.
In the end, he had to call an Uber for himself from some remote location he had found himself in after getting off the second bus. No, he did not ask the driver or anyone on the bus before descending. Yes, he’s an antisocial idiot.
Turns out the location was so far away from his brand-new office that he was fighting for his life with the driver to just speed the damn thing up after 40 minutes of run-of-the-mill driving. He was a blink away to pick the damned driver up and flick him to the backseat while he takes the wheel and drive how a car is meant to be driven.
After verbally obliterating the driver for the last 15 minutes of the ride and the driver speeding up (only a bit) in fear of his life, Kim Taehyung was finally, officially standing in front of his office and he was also terribly, terribly late.
Hence it brings us to his newfound homeless era on a fine Monday morning even after he woke up early to make himself pretty for the first day.
Keeping all that aside, he checks his watch for the n th time in the lift as he’s mere seconds away from being late for the new recruits meeting beginning in half a minute. His sheer willpower might as well be one of the factors because of which the doors slide open and he heaves out a breath before scurrying to search for the conference room.
His tunnel vision singles out the lady at the counter and sprints towards her as he asks, “May I know where the Conference room is?” heaving out long deep breaths. The lady startles and looks at him weirdly but Taehyung does not have time for this shit.
“Please?” he urges. The lady points him towards a glass door on his far left and he takes off with a mumbled thanks.
He almost slams himself splat on the door trying to put a break on his feet in a hurry but the door handle saves him in time. He’s only a literal second away from being actually late as he opens the door while patting his hair down to tone down the rundown persona he has going on.
Soft mumbles are what he’s greeted by as a few of the other new recruits glance towards him in surprise. He tries to get his breathing under control and flashes small polite smiles at whoever eyes he’s meeting with.
The conference room is half filled with who seem like new recruits like himself while the other half of the seats of the table towards the front remain unoccupied. A few who seem to be the ones conducting this meeting, stand in the front with files in hand pointing at them and discussing something.
He expresses his heartfelt gratitude to any and every omnipresent being listening and moves towards an empty seat right in front of him.
He settles down, ignoring the not-so-subtle side eyes the people on either side of him are giving him. He guesses those are customary plus given the state he’s in, he’s not about to blame the judgment at all.
Three taps on the table strip away his attention as the few people who had been standing in front have now deposited the files at the table and are calling for everyone’s attention.
A lady in a tight middle-length black dress steps out ahead from the lot and clears her throat.
“A very good morning to everyone present in this room. I am Han Hyesol and to begin with, I want to express my well wishes and hearty congratulations to all of you who have made it into Jeon Technologies. We are honored to be working with the promising erudite of the new generation. I hope you all enjoy and look forward to the industry just as how we are eager to have you working alongside us.”
The lady pauses, raking her eyes over everyone sat at the table. She continues, “The meeting right now is held to briefly welcome you all to our establishment after which you will be divided and assigned to various mentors who will explain and guide you through your first week. You all are to follow your mentors to your respective departments after this meeting and understand the work assigned to you.
Since a few of you will be working in the finance and IT departments which are under the direct authority of some from the board of directors, the heads of those departments and the CEO are currently on their way to deliver a formal welcome to you.”
Taehyung raises his brows. Hushed whispers spread across the room.
“It is indeed rare for them to address the new recruits directly, even though you all occupy significant posts of this establishment. You shall deem yourself fortunate that they all happened to be present at the company together this time. Please feel free to ask any questions although we do hope to keep this meeting short to get the day started.”
The very moment she finishes, a soft squeaky sound of the glass door opening resounds in the room. The sound of boots clinking follows and before Taehyung can look behind him, the new arrivals have already started moving towards the front.
Three men in combinations of grey and black double-breasted suits come to stand in the front. There’s a beat of silence and then the one in the middle, with one of his hands in his pocket, steps forward to speak.
“Good morning, everyone. I am Jeon Jeongguk, the CEO of Jeon Technologies and I am very obliged to be welcoming you to our establishment on your first day. We are—,”
The lustrous eyebrow piercing is what catches Taehyung’s eye at first glance. The slicked-back hair shadowing his forehead comes next. The round and full button nose that contrasts the overall sharpness of his face and jaw claims his attention after that. Doe-eyes join the contrast from the visibly pointed cheekbones, them being so black and piercing that they seem to be probing the depths of the forgotten memories of his soul.
Wait a damn minute .
He zones back in from the trance he was in to find those eyes staring straight at him with the owner of the eyes frozen.
He’s suddenly and acutely aware of the heavy and awkward silence booming inside the room with most of the others looking at Taehyung and Jeongguk simultaneously. He blinks. He looks back at Jeongguk to find him yet unmoving.
He doesn’t dare utter a word. His hand flies to his hair to see if that atrocity is the reason for the sudden scrutiny. He doesn’t find any reproval in regards to it. He pats his cheeks next softly and still doesn’t find anything that might make the CEO look at him with such vehemence.
“Kim Taehyung.”
Taehyung flinches at the brusque disruption in the silence. Jeongguk’s eyes remain steady on him. His seniors are looking at him in fascination now. Although they have yet to voice out their curiosity, it is as clear as glacial water upon their faces.
Taehyung stands up slowly. Lord knows what he did to make the CEO furious. He has already been having a shitty day as it is. He hasn’t uttered a single word or even glanced anywhere other than the front of the hall since the beginning of this entire meeting. He’s going to be a little biased and admit that he looks good in his newly sewn modern fit suit which is more than appropriately formal if that’s going to be an issue.
He rakes his brain for any shortcomings that might have occurred in the few seconds he needed to stand up and ends up with nothing. He’s going to let Jesus take the wheel now.
“Kim Taehyung,” mumbles Jeongguk, softly this time with a hint of something Taehyung couldn’t really figure out.
“Yes, sir?” he says, poised, not giving away the inner turmoil.
There’s silence again.
“Is there a problem, sir?” Han Hyesol asks, moving forward towards Jeongguk a bit.
His eyes don’t stray.
Jeongguk takes a deep breath and only then averts his eyes to briskly walk to the exit and leave the room, silently.
The silence stretches on as everybody looks at each other to make a head or tail of whatever the fuck just happened. Taehyung can only gape at the door swinging leisurely after his leave.
“That… was confounding,” Hyesol says, half-looking at the door and side-eyeing Taehyung, “We apologize for the confusion. The CEO must have recalled something that needs to be done as soon as possible. I’m sure he would have liked to be hosting this meeting a little longer but duty calls, I’m sure you understand.”
Bullshit.
Taehyung almost deadpans at the woman. Almost. He wonders if he should sit down because it’s getting even more awkward being the only one standing.
“Kim Taehyung,” one of the two men who entered alongside Jeongguk, says.
Taehyung stills again.
“Would you be kind enough to accompany me to my cabin after this meeting?” he asks, giving him a sun-rivalling blinding smile. Taehyung almost squints.
The second man who had entered with Jeongguk, standing beside the one asking the question, visibly and audibly scoffs.
The sunshine guy blinks expectantly at Taehyung, still smiling.
Taehyung is about one more call of his name away from getting thoroughly weirded out.
“Sure, Mr…” he probes.
“Jung, Jung Hoseok but you can call me Hoseok or Hobi, take your pick.”
“Sure, Mr. Jung, I’d be very obliged to accompany and interact with you,” Taehyung says, ignoring him.
“Well, that settles it then,” Hoseok says, “And of course, to you lot, as I’ve just mentioned, my name is Jung Hoseok and I am the chief branch manager of the finance department. It is very nice to meet you. I hope we’ll all strive for harmony and success just as we’ve done till date. Have a great day ahead, everyone,” he says, addressing the other recruits.
He motions for the person standing beside him to go next.
The pale man’s feline eyes scan Taehyung’s face for a second before turning back nonchalantly to the others.
“Hello, I am Min Yoongi, the chief branch manager of the IT department,” he simply says before he lets the silence prevail.
Hoseok rolls his eyes and sighs. He hits Yoongi’s arm once.
Yoongi sighs.
“Don’t come to me every single time you encounter a problem you can’t solve. Take a breather or ask the ITHelp community on our company’s cloud, specially designed for it. That’d be all.”
Hoseok looks at him with a deadpan. Taehyung agrees.
“Thank you for coming and greeting the new pupils today, directors. I’m sure this interaction helped to break the ice a little,” Hyseol chirps.
Hoseok mumbles something along the lines of Sure, it did .
“Okay everyone, today’s meeting will be adjourned here. We all have a new day to look forward to so let’s get started with it. The employees standing behind me are the mentors I have told you about so please find your department’s mentor and follow them. Mr.—.”
“Wait a minute, Hyseol-ssi. I’d like to take my leave now that it’s all done,” Hoseok says.
“Of course—,”
“And take Taehyung with me. Don’t worry I’ll make sure to drop him off personally at his department later.”
Hyseol looks at Taehyung and then at Hoseok, “I’m sure you will. Mr. Kim Taehyung, please report to your mentor as soon as you’re done. Thank you.”
“Uh—yes, of course,” Taehyung says, looking between the two of them.
Yoongi leaves wordlessly in the middle of this conversation and Hoseok waves him a quick cheery bye although Taehyung doubts the guy saw that.
“Ready when you are,” Hoseok says, joining his hands in front.
Taehyung takes a moment to breathe after the whirlwind that was this morning and then hastily grabs his messenger bag to go stand in front of Hoseok.
The rest of the room also diffuses into hesitant chaos as the recruits start standing up and interacting with the mentors.
“Let’s go,” Hoseok says, moving towards the doors as Taehyung follows.
Taehyung walks a step behind Hoseok as they make their way to the lift.
“You know, aside from being a member of the board and a manager, I’m also somewhat of a best friend to Jeongguk. Yoongi too, don’t mind his standoffish façade or anything, he’s a kitten. He’s just a little shy and aloof of strangers,” Hoseok says, pressing the lift button as they come to stand in front of it.
Taehyung wasn’t at all intrigued about the unnecessary info but he smiles and nods because like any salaryman, he values his newfound job.
Hoseok looks at him expectantly after his unexpected dialogue. Taehyung holds the eye contact because what the fuck does he want from him?
The lift doors slide open and Hoseok rolls his eyes, getting in.
He presses the 14 th floor button which it also seems is the second last floor and the doors close together leaving them alone in the limited space.
Hoseok turns to him expectantly again.
“So,” he says.
“So?” Taehyung asks.
Hoseok clicks his tongue, “So, you know, you could be informal with me. It’s all good between us. I just told you. There’s no need to be reserved.”
Taehyung has a what the fuck right at the tip of his tongue.
“What… exactly is that supposed to mean?”
“Are you pretending right now? Is that what’s going on? I mean okay I kinda get it but like I am telling you me, Yoongi and Jeongguk don’t keep secrets from each other, not for long anyway. We’ll all know about this sooner or later so there’s no need to be so cautious.”
Taehyung strongly feels that there’s something being misunderstood.
“Mr. Jung, I truly, sincerely do not know what you are talking about. I am not pretending and I’m no part of any secret. I think you’re mistaking me for someone else,” he says in response.
Hoseok squints at him.
“Why do I feel like you’re not lying?”
“Because I’m not,” Taehyung exhales.
“Wait, how is that possible?”
“I do not know, Mr. Jung. I have no idea what you’ve been on about all this time.”
“So.”
Taehyung sighs. “So.”
“So you’re not Jeongguk’s recent fling?”
Taehyung goes stock-still at the words as the doors slide open on cue.
“Excuse me?” he says, incredulously.
Hoseok’s face goes through a wide and long series of emotions and he pales noticeably as he comes to a realization.
“Shit.”
“What the—what are talking about Mr. Jung? I met Mr. Jeon for the first time in that conference room. Where did you even get the idea—?”
“But that—how he just—what the fuck? Was I mistaken? Shit,” he winces, weaving a hand through his hair.
Taehyung merely stares at him in disbelief for even suggesting that.
“Taehyung, Taehyung, I’m so so sorry. I didn’t think anything through it seems. Please forgive me for insinuating that or if I’ve offended you in the process. Also please forget this conversation happened if possible. Let’s just keep it under wraps, yes? I swear Jeongguk would have my head if he came to know about this. You can go your way now okay, and don’t forget to forget everything! Bye!” he exclaims, swiftly getting out in time before the lift doors close again, leaving Taehyung standing alone in utter bewilderment.
“What the fuck?” he finally whispers to himself in solitude.
¯\_( ⊙ _ ʖ ⊙ )_/¯
That was the tale of Kim Taehyung’s first day. It’s all good to him though, he isn’t one to be held back by the constraints of necessary evils. So, with the fervent heart of a baby who has finally learned to crawl, he had dived headfirst into all of the tasks assigned to him and then some.
The week swiftly passed by among the placating smiles of Mr. Jung and rapt attention from Mr. Min the two times they happened to cross ways. Of course, he passed on the interactions at the very back of his brain as soon he was done with them.
With his overthinking ability rivaling at least a dozen people combined, he has deemed it vital to not spare a thought to whatever the fuck happened in that conference room and by relativity, Mr. Jung and Mr. Min.
He has enough on his plate anyway. Two days in, they, and by they he means the new recruits, were whacked with the announcement of a new project whose responsibility will rely solely on them.
Well, there’s also that that all the recruits are experienced and this is not their first job fresh out of college yet Taehyung wasn’t expecting much this soon.
As the newly appointed IT analyst, Taehyung has been given the main supervisor position for this project which he has come to realise is basically playing mother hen.
He glances towards the glass windows at the first crack of thunder and clicks his tongue. As he has obviously forgotten to bring his umbrella and is obviously going to be late because of the last-minute meeting, he takes a moment to gather his nonexistent patience to appreciate that he’s fucked.
Sweeping up the project files and his laptop, he joins his baby chicks as they all make their way to that wretched conference room once again.
It was only this morning that they were informed of the project briefing that would be taking place in the evening and after the initial trauma of a few minutes, everybody had rushed to add the finishing touches and summarise and create a presentation as soon as possible.
All the appreciation Taehyung had for the company’s liberalism, dematerialized like his leftover sanity.
They reached the room in record time and began to set up the presentation before the department head and branch manager arrived.
No sooner had the projector lit up with the slides than the door opened as Mr. Lee, the dept. head and Mr. Min enter along with their secretaries.
Taehyung was about to welcome the new additions as everybody else scrambled to get organized but before he could get a word out, in a theatrical fashion, Mr. Lee and Mr. Min moved sideways in opposite directions to reveal Jeon Jeongguk in all his glory, in the middle.
There’s a sudden hushed silence at the reveal and Taehyung’s voice gets caught in his throat as he makes direct eye contact with the guy. This time, however, Jeongguk is the first one to look away as he strides inside the room, boots clinking in the dead silent backdrop. He stops in front of the seat heading the table.
“Shall we begin?” he raises a brow, looking at Taehyung.
A beat, and the scrambling surges tenfold as everybody takes their respective positions and Mr. Lee and Mr. Min come up to their seats. The scrambling jolts Taehyung and he shakes his head, getting ready to present as everyone settles down.
Nobody had the slightest idea that the meeting would be addressing the literal CEO and by the looks of it, neither did the department heads who seemed to be almost as uncomfortable as Taehyung felt under Jeongguk’s scrutiny.
The lights dim and Taehyung begins explaining the product with occasional add-ons from his team members. The bosses do not utter a word nor do their facial muscles twitch in the slightest which makes Taehyung panic internally but he’s no sheep in tiger’s clothing so his façade remains as impeccable as it had been.
By the end of it all, he’s only a tad bit out of breath, more so from avoiding Jeongguk’s eyes than the presentation, and honestly, he believes he nailed it.
His team has relief written on their faces so at least he was able to fruitfully present what they had worked on, as to whether that is up to the mark, they’re about to find out.
The lights switch on.
Min Yoongi is the first one to speak, “Well done. Better than I was expecting but—,”
“Rejected.”
The words reverberate smothering any and every sound inside the room. Every single person present looks at Jeongguk, mouth agape, in tandem. Even Yoongi who hadn’t finished speaking raises a brow.
“Excuse me?” Taehyung says before he can think.
“I said, rejected, Mr. Kim Taehyung,” Jeongguk says, leaning back in his chair.
“Jeongguk—,” Yoongi whispers but stops after seeing the resolve in his eyes as he flicks a glance at him.
“But—but why?” asks Taehyung, completely caught off guard.
“Because it was nowhere near the mark I envisioned,” replies Jeongguk simply.
Taehyung opens and closes his mouth a few times, disoriented.
“Which part exactly was not—,”
“All of it.”
“What?” Taehyung exclaims.
“None of it is in any way presentable to the client, Mr. Kim. I see how you may have devised your projects till today but at Jeon Corps, you’re going to need to go above and beyond that.”
“Jeongguk—,” Yoongi tries hushing him again.
“You were appointed as the supervisor and considering your past achievements, I was expecting a lot more as the mere minimum but this, was only a waste of my time,” he says, getting up and straightening his suit.
“Ha—,” a hand on his arm stops Taehyung from expressing the incredulity he is in. He finds Chaewon, one of his team members, holding his arm and looking straight at Jeongguk.
“Understood, sir. We’ll make sure the next one definitely takes the spot,” she says with a smile.
A quick and unexpected spout of anger rushes through him as he notices the already downtrodden faces of his team and the forced ease on Chaewon’s face. The past 4 days of toiling had amounted to absolute nil, nothing and Taehyung couldn’t help the fury of being swatted like a fly.
He looks at Jeongguk then, defiance evident in his eyes to find him looking somewhere below his face. He follows his eyes to locate them being caught up at the stretch where Chaewon has held his arm.
He furrows his brows, looking back up, and catches Jeongguk staring at him again.
“Please do,” is all he says before walking out of the room.
Another crackle of thunder breaks him free of the reminiscing he has been doing since he left the office. He tries not to let another image of Chaewon or his other team members trying to comfort him float in front of his eyes.
He shrugs off his dripping wet coat and throws it in his laundry basket while kicking his door closed. He doesn’t bother switching on any lights; the flickering bright flashes of lightning light up his apartment every so often.
He stares at the raindrops sliding down his closed window for a moment, just standing still and breathing. A minute passes by and he decides it’s enough.
Stripping down, he enters the shower and focuses on massaging his hair and head because he’s going to need it tonight.
He exits the bathroom, dressed in comfy pajamas with the towel around his neck, and goes straight to his work desk to switch on his monitor.
He skims through the work files twice, all the while noting every single possibility where hitches may be observed even if it meant going slightly over budget. Folding his legs, he settles on his chair for the long night of research ahead of him.
A gust of cold wind brushing against his still-cool neck and arms from the shower makes him shiver. Taehyung tsks, focus shifting from the files. He gets up and quickly closes the window on his right, wiping his wet hands on his shirt.
He almost drops back down on his chair before a thought flutters into his mind. He looks back towards the window.
Wasn’t it closed when I came home though?
Σ(- ᷅ _- ᷄ ๑ )
Taehyung is a man on a mission. He takes a determined step towards the CEO’s cabin and then another till he’s standing right in front of the door.
He looks behind him one last time to find his team members shaking their heads and crossing their forearms to relay just how bad of an idea it is. Well, if they haven’t managed to stop him from coming this far, he doubts doing that is going to stop him now. It’s cute though.
He has thought long and hard and only then made the decision to come here. Yoongi had already approved the revised edition of the plan this morning but Taehyung wanted it to be perfect. And by it, he means the pathway to starting this project.
He’s not about to tolerate another hurdle in the middle of execution when or if the all-knowing CEO decides that it’s not vibing with him all of a sudden. His self-respect had taken a critical hit the day before and he’s going to make the man responsible nurse it back to health.
Not in his 5 years of working experience has anyone, even his previous bosses ever disrespected him or his work the way Jeongguk did yesterday. Now he’s going to deliver the best and only the best he has to offer and throw it into his face.
He knocks on the door thrice.
“Come in.”
Taehyung huffs a breath. Here he goes.
He enters the room and finds Jeongguk neck-deep in one of his files, writing something. The large slate black table had a range of files and folders sprawled across itself with the faint brightness of his monitor lighting his face.
Taehyung comes up to the side of his desk and that causes Jeongguk to pause and look up. Surprisingly, or not so much now, Jeongguk stops dead and just stares.
Taehyung doesn’t have time for this shit again so he gives a very coarse cough jolting Jeongguk and smiles.
“Sir, the new plan for Sinco Industries,” he says, offering him the file in his hands.
Jeongguk looks at the file being offered and back again at his face.
“And?”
“The new plan? I thought you’d want to take a look,” he says, smiling.
Jeongguk furrows his brows.
“Mr. Kim, we have branch managers and even department managers for this kind of thing,” he says, pursing his lips.
Taehyung raises his eyebrows but keeps his smile in place, “Oh, do we?”
Jeongguk’s eyebrows smoothen. “Excuse me?”
“Ah, of course, I mean. But you see, I realized yesterday just how much value you give to each and every product of the company and how ambitious your vision is. It has inspired me so much that I cannot believe I’ve been working without it to date. In accordance, I’ve come here to present you the revised plan so that I can be assured that I’ve measured up to your standards.”
Jeongguk and Taehyung stare at each other for a minute after the speech in silence.
Once again, Jeongguk is the one to look away first. He exhales. Taehyung mildly smirks.
“Mr. Kim, what—,”
“Mamma?”
The bassy parting of the door grunts consonantly with the babyish voice, stunning the two people occupying the room. Taehyung turns around to find a little girl, height reaching up to his knees, looking flabbergasted at the doorway.
Same, his thoughts chime.
“Nara ya, how did you—,” He hears Jeongguk speaking.
“Mamma!” she exclaims in glee, looking straight at Taehyung. She runs as fast as she can with the cutest tiniest feet Taehyung has ever seen and crashes into his legs.
“Ma, you’re back!” she laughs.
Taehyung looks down at her then he turns to look at Jeongguk, who looks like he’s on his last lifeline.
Hmm , he thinks again to himself, looking into the distance.
What the fuck.