"I consider you a good friend too, Joonghyuk-ssi," Kim Dokja looked away, the tips of his ears tinging pink.
Yoo Joonghyuk looked ahead as well. "So why would it be a waste of time and energy?"
"Because it will...?" Kim Dokja said, a little confused. "You know, sometimes common sense helps."
Yoo Joonghyuk gave him an offended glare.
"I didn't mean it that way," Kim Dokja huffed. "I was just saying, it makes no sense to put bandages over already-healed wounds. You need a different method for it."
"Are you trying to be a self-fulfilling prophecy, Dokja-ssi?" Yoo Joonghyuk said, a little irked.
The corner of Kim Dokja's lips quirked in a smirk.
"It's funny how I know what you're talking about," the man said.
When Yoo Joonghyuk didn't give a reaction to it, Kim Dokja, albeit reluctantly, gave it a thought.
"Well," he said a few moments later. "I suppose you're right. . .I am not trying to ruin your business though, Joonghyuk-ssi!"
"I know," Yoo Joonghyuk muttered, tired.
"And I'm not trying to get myself fired either," Kim Dokja continued. "I know, it seems like it, but I wouldn't do that. Not to you."
Yoo Joonghyuk pursed his lips. What did he have to do with it?
". . .I," Kim Dokja swallowed. "I gave you my word, that I'd give it a try. Since you brought my silly idea to life, even if it is still in the developing stage, I should keep my promise."
"I think you've already done that," Yoo Joonghyuk said, his throat oddly dry. "You've given it a try, you don't have to feel any kind of obligation."
"Oh, so can I back out now?"
"Please don't," Yoo Joonghyuk said immediately.
They kept walking, steps in sync, their pace the same as it had been when they first started the walk.
"I'm sorry for worrying you and Uriel," Kim Dokja said quietly. "You're right. I guess I have been doing it. I let it happen, I let it get this far."
"It's not your fault," Yoo Joonghyuk wanted to reach out and give him a few pats on the back. His arm didn't move from his side, however.
"Not completely," Kim Dokja shook his head. "But I did have a part to play in it. It just made it more normal for me. I guess I couldn't handle things being...nice. It felt like a premonition, too many good things so something bad's surely on its way, you get what I mean?"
"I do," Yoo Joonghyuk nodded.
Kim Dokja exhaled loudly through his nose. "And out of all the hurdles I've faced at work, this ranks pretty low on the list. I felt it was better, one less thing to be anxious about."
"Now, I know it's not exactly normal," Kim Dokja said, louder. "But come on, I'm not normal."
"You're not," Yoo Joonghyuk agreed.
"Exactly," Kim Dokja gave a shrug that came off as smug.
"But," he said with a little drawl. "I consider you more important than fixing my stupid worry, so I'll make this right."
Yoo Joonghyuk watched Kim Dokja from the corner of his eye again.
"It's not something for you to fix, Joonghyuk-ssi," Kim Dokja said, attempting to reassure him. "It's something for me to do. I just didn't think it was worth doing it, but since I've given you my word. . ."
Kim Dokja sighed softly. "I'll fix this soon, so don't worry anymore, Joonghyuk-ssi."
". . .You also have a saviour complex, don't you, Dokja-ssi?"
Kim Dokja scoffed indignantly and Yoo Joonghyuk hid his smile before Kim Dokja spotted it.
"I don't have a saviour complex," Kim Dokja grumbled. "You're just important to me."
"I'm glad," Yoo Joonghyuk said truthfully. "You're important to me too."
Standing at the door, Kim Dokja said, "We haven't done karaoke for some time now."
Yoo Joonghyuk nodded.
It had been a while since they had used the karaoke machine and sometimes when he looked at the machine that sat in the corner of his living room he felt it was an impulsive buy.
He didn't mind it too much though. It just meant that they had gotten closer, they didn't need alcohol and the aid of loud sing-along songs to help them talk to each other easily. But it would be nice to use it sometime soon.
"We should then," Yoo Joonghyuk said.
"We can't drink too heavily though. We'll have work the next day," Kim Dokja reminded him.
"Of course. . .Unless we arrange it on a Saturday," Yoo Joonghyuk added as an afterthought.
"Hmm, that works too," Kim Dokja hummed. ". . .Your birthday's soon."
"It's two months away, I don't think you can call it soon."
"It's the third of August, that doesn't really count as a month," Kim Dokja waved it away.
"Over a month then," Yoo Joonghyuk shrugged. "Still not soon."
"That's subjective, you know," Kim Dokja droned. "And it depends on the context. It's pretty relative, these kinds of things. . .Oh, well."
Kim Dokja turned around and opened the door, stepping outside.
"I meant it, Joonghyuk-ssi," Kim Dokja said, facing him again, a hand on the edge of the front door. "You shouldn't stress yourself about it anymore. And Uriel Noona too."
"If you ever need our help, Dokja-ssi—"
"I know," Kim Dokja said firmly. "I know and you should know that I. . ."
He frowned a little, sucked his bottom lip into his mouth, trying to find his words.
"Just," Kim Dokja exhaled. "Joonghyuk-ssi, just watch me—Yeah, don't worry and just watch me. It's not too hard for me to handle."
He could do that. He was planning on doing it anyway.
"I will," Yoo Joonghyuk said. "And regardless, you'll have my support."
Kim Dokja's grin was a little wonky. "I hit the jackpot with my boss this time, didn't I?"
"Best boss ever," Kim Dokja gave Yoo Joonghyuk a thumbs up, taking his hand off the door. Yoo Joonghyuk raised his eyebrows.
"I'll even get that printed on a coffee mug for you," Kim Dokja's grin grew wider. "And you can keep it at your office. . .as long as it doesn't ruin your reputation."
"Why would a coffee mug ruin my reputation?" Yoo Joonghyuk said.
"It's usually the little things," Kim Dokja said blithely.
"I wouldn't mind having a coffee mug reading 'best boss ever' on my desk," Yoo Joonghyuk said, imitating Kim Dokja's nonchalant tone. "Shouldn't I have it out on display if I am indeed the best boss ever?"
"Joonghyuk-ssi, do you know of this little thing? It's called, um, exaggeration?"
They said goodbye with light chuckles and Kim Dokja whipped around, a few feet away from the elevator doors to see Yoo Joonghyuk waiting by the door until he left.
"I forgot to mention," Kim Dokja yelled out. "The food was delicious as always!"
Yoo Joonghyuk smiled as he leaned against the door frame.
"Thank you!" he yelled back. "I'm glad!"
Kim Dokja's face wasn't close enough for him to see the expressions that he made clearly, but he could tell that he was beaming as he reached the elevator, got in and popped his head out to give him a quick wave, that Yoo Joonghyuk returned promptly.
With Kim Dokja gone, Yoo Joonghyuk pushed himself off the doorframe and stepped back into the house, closing the door behind him.
"Eighteen minutes and forty-three seconds," Uriel said when he walked into the living room. She held out her phone with the stopwatch application on the screen, the numbers she said blaring out.
"That's how long you took to say bye-bye."
"Eighteen forty-three, round off to twenty," she continued, undeterred by Yoo Joonghyuk's lack of reaction. "That's one-third of an hour."
"Spit out what you want to say instead of dawdling," Yoo Joonghyuk said.
"Just giving some perspective," Uriel crossed her legs and leaned back on the sofa. "I gave you two some time to yourself, expecting it would be a quick ta-ta, bye-bye. Not one-third's of an hour of flirting."
Yoo Joonghyuk frowned.
"We weren't flirting."
"Oh, my, what a shame," Uriel said, enunciating every syllable. She huffed a little and crossed her arms across her chest as well. "I just want to know if you two start dating."
Yoo Joonghyuk's frown grew more pronounced.
"Why would we start dating?"
Uriel's crossed arms went slack.
"We're friends," Yoo Joonghyuk said sternly. "Do not bother Kim Dokja with this, is that clear?"
Uriel opened her mouth heatedly, then deciding against it, she closed it and swallowed her words.
"You are the worst boss ever, actually," she said as Yoo Joonghyuk walked away. "My Dokja is just too nice to say that to your dumb face."
"Whatever helps you sleep at night," Yoo Joonghyuk scoffed.
Wednesday, three days after Kim Dokja's assurance, Uriel informed him that Kim Dokja "snapped".
"What?"
"He snapped," Uriel let out a heavy sigh.
What on earth was that even supposed to mean? And his secretary wasn't explaining things either, she seemed to be processing things too.
Once Uriel gathered her bearings, she told him about how, apparently, Kim Dokja finally had enough and put his foot down, harshly scolding his team that was messing around. Then, he apparently told some very cold, snarky words to the Deputy Head of the Department and passive-aggressively told him to fuck off.
"Kim Dokja did?" Yoo Joonghyuk said, stunned and Uriel nodded.
Uriel's delay in giving him the details made sense. He would have taken a while too, if he had seen Kim Dokja angry.
Kim Dokja and anger was something he had a try hard to imagine. He had seen the man frustrated plenty of times, annoyed, indifferent, yes. But not angry.
No, no, Kim Dokja was a person and it was completely normal for him to get angry. It was just a little hard to wrap his head around.
"Snapped? Oh, it was more...well, I guess you could say snapped," Kim Dokja said through the phone when Yoo Joonghyuk called him to check in on him during lunch.
"And I wouldn't say I yelled at them. It was more of a stern telling-off. I mean, I just said that I didn't care what they did in their free time, gossiping or betting, but if the fucked up at work, I wasn't going to sit back and do nothing."
"I took a whole day to come up with the script, actually," Kim Dokja chuckled. "I spent all of last night trying to remember every mistake each one of them had made and listed them all out."
Yoo Joonghyuk stared at the keyboard sitting on his desk. . .Script, he said. That actually made a lot of sense.
"Their faces were a sight to see. It wasn't anything too harsh though," Kim Dokja continued. "They won't come after me with pitchforks or anything."
"And your Deputy Head?"
"Ah, that bastard?"
Kim Dokja must really dislike that person.
"I guess I was a little harsh on him. But he had it coming really," Kim Dokja said dismissively. "All he does is pull-rank, and treat the other employees like his servants so I asked him to shove it."
Yoo Joonghyuk had no problem with it, but. . .His pride was really taking a hit, when he, as the CEO, had to ask Kim Dokja, "Will this cause you any trouble?"
He didn't know the details of what had happened, even Uriel only had the gist of things and hadn't witnessed the scene herself. If Kim Dokja had somehow crossed a line, he wouldn't be able to help him.
"Nope," Kim Dokja said brightly. "It might cause you a little trouble though. I'm sorry about that."
...what?
"Cause me trouble?"
"It's not a big issue though," Kim Dokja said quickly. "Like two on ten, maximum."
"Two on ten as a recommendation or...?"
"Ah, no, two on ten difficulty rating," Kim Dokja said. "I mean, there are confounding factors that could meddle, that's why I called it a two. But I think it won't go any more than half, really."
"What do you mean?" Yoo Joonghyuk said, trying hard to understand Kim Dokja and failing.
"I don't think it would be brought to you," Kim Dokja explained. "Well, you might hear of it because he's related to the board director, but that's about it. Nothing else, really."
"What are you trying to do?" Yoo Joonghyuk asked.
"Oh, well, it's not really the best place to say it," Kim Dokja chuckled softly.
"Where are you, Dokja-ssi?"
"Rooftop."
The rooftop?
"Why are you there?"
"I was exploring," Kim Dokja told him. "Usually, I'm done within a couple of months, but it's a large building, so it's taking longer to find the best spots."
"Best spots?" Yoo Joonghyuk repeated.
"Best spots to enjoy some time alone and slack off," Kim Dokja said cheerfully. "I'll compile a list and let you know of the spots once I'm done exploring and you can run away from Noona and hide here when you want."
Yoo Joonghyuk smiled weakly, though Kim Dokja wouldn't be able to see it.
"Is work that boring for you, Dokja-ssi?"
"It's lunch break," Kim Dokja reminded him. "I'm not slacking on company time. . . Yet."
Yoo Joonghyuk couldn't help but laugh.
"Did you have your lunch or are you skipping?"
"I finished eating and then set off on my adventure. I'm not a slow eater, really. It doesn't take too long for me to finish my food."
"Please, don't skip meals."
Kim Dokja sighed softly from the other end of the call.
"I won't," he said. "You too, please don't skip your meals."
"I don't have a habit of skipping meals like you though, Dokja-ssi."
"What makes you think that I have a habit of skipping meals?" Kim Dokja said incredulously. "If it's because of my physique, then blame being malnourished as a child. I eat just fine."
"You told me yourself that you had convenience store kimbap for years because you were too lazy to cook," Yoo Joonghyuk leaned back in his chair and put his elbow on the armrest, chin pressed against his knuckles.
"And I had no time," Kim Dokja said. He sounded a little irritated when his own words were used against him.
"Even if you had time you wouldn't because you felt it was too much work," Yoo Joonghyuk said. "You told me this too."
He heard Kim Dokja groan indignantly. "I'm not telling you anything from now on. You're supposed to be on my side and look at you, shamelessly using unethical ammo."
"What?" Yoo Joonghyuk snorted. "I am on your side and that's exactly why I'm trying to keep your bad habits in check."
"Tsk, tsk, traitor."
Yoo Joonghyuk laughed softly.
Kim Dokja sighed and pushed the door completely open.
"Why're you here out of the blue?" he muttered, letting his friends troop in.
The kids ran in first and clasped around him in tight hugs.
"Hyung!"
"Ahjussi!"
It was an automatic response now, to pat their heads.
"Have you grown taller?" Kim Dokja said, stroking Gilyoung and Yoosung's heads. "You have! Look at you, my kids are growing up so fast."
Yoosung and Gilyoung beamed.
"I'm growing tall too," Mia pouted from behind her brother's back.
"Yes, yes, our Mia is growing tall too," Kim Dokja said to placate her.
"We're going to the aquarium," Yoo Joonghyuk, his Yoo Joonghyuk said, walking into the apartment with his sister. "Get ready."
Right, it was the summer holidays for the kids, obviously, they were going to go somewhere.
"Can't, sorry," Kim Dokja said, nodding at the little sofa where his laptop lay open. "I've got work to do."
Yoo Joonghyuk's eyes went wide.
"Work?" he said. "You? You're working on a weekend?"
"Hey!" Kim Dokja said indignantly. "It's important."
"Do it tomorrow," Yoo Joonghyuk said.
"Can't," Kim Dokja shook his head. "I have some other stuff to do."
Yoo Joonghyuk glared down at him and the kids on his either side gave him the puppy eyes, saying, "Please?"
Yoo Joonghyuk pulled his hand out from his pocket, along with his phone and pressed it to his ear.