Uriel was right. She fucking knew it.
She knew it would be like this!
She had been right to dread her boss' behaviour once his crush started working at the same office as him.
Yoo Joonghyuk didn't always have to go to the office, but he made it a regular thing after Kim Dokja started working at the office. And he only seemed to get worse by the day.
Kim Dokja was an absolute sweetheart as always, Uriel couldn't find a single thing to complain about him. It was her stupid boss who was the problem.
Kim Dokja was acting just fine. Only this old bastard went around doing bullshit.
After her nice holiday, where she had booked a hotel room by the sea and spent a good three days, lazing around on the beach, she was forced to get back to work and the first thing she had to deal with was her boss getting into his car with a fucking flower vase.
"What the fuck is that?" she spat when she saw it.
Yoo Joonghyuk didn't grace her with an answer, but his driver helped out.
It was apparently like the flowers Kim Dokja had gifted him on his birthday and Uriel pieced things together.
First of all, Kim Dokja gave him flowers?
Second, that sort of explained why her mostly unenthusiastic boss suddenly had a profile picture. Even Kim Dokja had one all of a sudden, now that she thought about it. Did those two plan it out?
All that aside!
None of it would have mattered, she was fine with all of that. Truly!
She didn't mind her boss putting the sunflowers on the edge of his desk while he worked. Not an issue at all, even if it was slightly distracting when she went in to report something to her CEO. The sunflowers seemed to wink at her playfully as they sat in the vase. But Uriel knew how to focus, so she made it through.
And then, a week in, the flowers ended up wilting completely. The previously energetic flowers were drooping in their vase, the sunny yellow now dim and browning.
Along with the flowers, Yoo Joonghyuk's good mood died as well.
Her nasty boss was back, more brutal than ever.
He was sending people on the verge of sobbing out of meeting rooms and he was likely to bite someone's head off at the slightest provocation now.
Uriel was going to quit. She'd had enough.
Uriel bought new flowers and filled in the vase but Yoo Joonghyuk regarded them with disgust.
"What's this?" he'd barked. "It's a waste of space, put it somewhere else if you want."
God, please, help. She was going to murder that fucking son of a bitch CEO of hers at this rate.
She switched the carnations out to sunflowers. Maybe her CEO just liked sunflowers.
But she got the same reaction again and there was no other possible conclusion. The flowers mattered because Kim Dokja had given them to him.
"You know what," she snapped back at her boss, having kept it in for days now. "Go rot in hell, asshole. I don't care anymore. I'm going to fucking rant to Dokja about all the shit you're doing if you keep this up, I swear."
And look at that!
That turned out to be the most effective tactic, it was both a threat and encouragement combined.
The motherfucker reigned his temper in. Son of a bitch!
That's all it took? Seriously?
Maybe all of this was actually a sign. The universe was telling her to quit working for this shitty boss of hers.
A few months ago, she would have considered Kim Dokja an eligible candidate to take over her position as a certain jerk's secretary. The best even, since he could actually handle the disaster called Yoo Joonghyuk.
But now she was a wiser woman and knew better. Kim Dokja was perhaps the worst person to be Yoo Joonghyuk's secretary. Both were too soft on each other and would just end up running the company to the ground within the first day.
Goddamnit. . .What had her life come to?
"Instead of sulking," Uriel sighed out one day while taking their lunch break. "Why don't you ask Dokja out on a date?"
Now, she wasn't all too pleased with that. She believed that Dokja deserved someone better than this prickly bastard.
"What nonsense," Yoo Joonghyuk scoffed. "Why would I do that?"
Murder was truly looking appealing.
"You don't want to date him? Hug him, kiss him?" Uriel prodded, despite herself. "You've been awfully touchy these days."
She wasn't lying. After Yoo Joonghyuk's birthday, when she returned after her little vacation she saw that something had shifted between those two. They were a little closer than they used to be, a bit more comfortable standing next to each other, touching each other.
It wasn't a large or apparent gesture, nothing like hugs or holding hands. Just a quick brushing of hands, light nudges and pushes, their knees knocked into each other when they sat on the sofa a bit closer than they used to, and other similar small gestures.
"You're giving hints. Isn't that what you're trying to do?" she asked.
Yoo Joonghyuk levelled her with a disgusted glare.
"No," he said coldly. "What hints? We are friends."
Right, of course. Her dumb boss never had a friend before, he didn't realise that that's not how people usually acted towards their friends. Well, maybe a few people acted that way, but her boss was hardly normal.
"Do not bring this up to Kim Dokja, understood? You'll only bother him," Yoo Joonghyuk snapped.
Uriel vowed to herself to find a perfect man for Kim Dokja, and she would be the matchmaker, have them get married eventually and then she would laugh in a moping Yoo Joonghyuk's face. It would be her revenge.
"However," her superior said in a tone that was warmer by the tiniest amount. "You're right. I should take him somewhere. . .How many off days does he have?"
". . .Why?" Uriel said slowly.
Her boss didn't give her an answer.
It wasn't something new. He was always like this, he only did what he wanted. The only person he acted like a decent human being for was Kim Dokja.
"How was it at the beach?" Yoo Joonghyuk said suddenly, after a long stretch of silence, when they were almost done with the food they had ordered and had delivered to the office.
"Better than here," Uriel shot, vexed.
Yoo Joonghyuk sat in thought for a while and then opened his mouth, "Prolonged exposure to harsh sunlight can be harmful, though."
What the fuck was he on about?
"Jeju is close enough, wouldn't you say?"
Oh, for fuck's sake!
Uriel did not give an answer, Yoo Joonghyuk didn't bother getting one either. Both of them knew it wasn't actually a question that required an answer, he might as well have been talking to himself.
She was giving up. Let him do whatever the fuck he wanted. She no longer cared.
Uriel did laugh her head off when Yoo Joonghyuk asked Kim Dokja, "Dokja-ssi, would you like to go on a trip to Jeju Island?"
And Kim Dokja replied with a simple, prompt, "No."
Yoo Joonghyuk glared at her, his message apparent, 'Shut up'.
But this was too much of a great opportunity to make fun of him and Uriel was taking full advantage of it.
"Why not?" Yoo Joonghyuk turned back to Kim Dokja who was sitting next to him on Yoo Joonghyuk's sofa at home.
"I don't think I can take any vacations," Kim Dokja took a sip of his barley tea. "I've barely started, isn't it too soon to take holidays? I mean, I've only been at the company for. . ." He counted the months on the fingers of his empty left hand.
Uriel noticed the way Yoo Joonghyuk's eyes stayed fixed on Kim Dokja's hand, watching the younger man's thumb lightly tap each finger as he counted.
It was so obvious, the way Yoo Joonghyuk's gaze flitted up to Kim Dokja's face, landing on his lips as Kim Dokja mouthed the words, "April, May, June, July, now August," a tap on a fingertip for each month.
Yoo Joonghyuk looked up into his eyes and Uriel parted her lips, letting out a silent sigh.
Fucking idiot.
"But you would like to if you had the chance?" Yoo Joonghyuk pressed.
"Hmm, a holiday trip does sound nice," Kim Dokja thought about it wistfully. "Isn't it too late to go to the beach though? Summer's almost done. It'll soon start to rain too."
"That's why we have to go soon," Yoo Joonghyuk said seriously, Kim Dokja tensing at his grave tone.
Kim Dokja opened his mouth uncertainly. "Do you have something important to do in Jeju, Joonghyuk-ssi?"
Oh, this sweet baby, always assuming the other person was just as good as him. No, that fucker, Yoo Joonghyuk, he just wanted to skip away from work. He always ran to Kim Dokja when he wanted to do that.
"He just wants to avoid responsibilities, don't enable him, Dokja-yah," Uriel spoke and if looks could kill, she would have been dead ten times over with the seething glare Yoo Joonghyuk had sent her.
"Have you been to Jeju, Dokja-ssi?" Yoo Joonghyuk changed the subject.
"Ah, no, I haven't," Kim Dokja shook his head.
Uriel changed her mind.
"Let's go to Jeju," she said with determination. "Call in sick on Thursday, and we can have four days of fun."
Kim Dokja looked slightly alarmed.
"Are you guys allowed to say that? Aren't I your employee, Joonghyuk-ssi?"
"And that's precisely why that I can say this," Yoo Joonghyuk said coolly. "Anyone can get sick. Falling ill is not done by getting an appointment."
"It's part of your compensation," Uriel nodded along, agreeing with her boss' words. "Two days isn't a big deal, Dokja-yah."
"What about your work?"
"If something important comes up we can handle it there," Uriel spoke over Yoo Joonghyuk. "We usually work from home anyway."
Kim Dokja stared.
"Really? But you go to the office every day," he said.
"That's because this guy's worried about you," Uriel huffed, jerking her head in Yoo Joonghyuk's direction. "He doesn't have to be there every single day."
Stomping all over her expectations, Kim Dokja, instead of laughing or getting annoyed, looked up at Yoo Joonghyuk with wide eyes, anxiety and guilt swirling in them.
No, no, Dokja-yah, focus on the part where he's been lying and making excuses! Don't pity the jerk, that wasn't the point.
Uriel watched, miffed, as Kim Dokja chirped out his usual refrain, "You didn't have to. It's surely a lot of work, you really don't have to, Joonghyuk-ssi."
Tch. Yoo Joonghyuk, that lucky bastard.
"It's not a big deal, Dokja-ssi."
Did he think he was being cool and dependable? As if!
"It helps me out too, being at the office helps me focus better."
"Really?"
Yoo Joonghyuk nodded and Uriel sang in English, "Liar, liar, pants on fire."
And Kim Dokja understood.
Yoo Joonghyuk looked like he was going to clobber her to death. He might actually have if Kim Dokja wasn't present at the moment.
"Quiet," Yoo Joonghyuk snapped at her. "It does help me focus," he assured Kim Dokja. "She's just mad because I've made her work overtime. She's complaining about that."
"Ah, I see," Kim Dokja nodded.
No! Dokja, don't listen to that bastard!
While Uriel was pissed at being overworked, she almost always was and at this point, was just used to it. Even if she wasn't overworked and exhausted, she would have still rallied for Yoo Joonghyuk's suffering.
But Dokja seemed to believe him readily and he dropped it completely when Yoo Joonghyuk placed a hand on his shoulder, talking about a trip to Jeju, effectively distracting Dokja.
When Yoo Joonghyuk squeezed his shoulder lightly, Uriel saw how Kim Dokja's eyes darted away quickly and his foot tapped the floor absentmindedly.
Seriously?
Kim Dokja shifted in his seat on the sofa so that his body faced Yoo Joonghyuk a little more, listening to him attentively. Kim Dokja always listened to others carefully; but he always did pay very close attention to Yoo Joonghyuk.
But this was different. Especially the way his eyes seemed to sparkle, much like the way they did when he was talking about his other friends or when he spoke about the kinds of stories he liked.
He had leaned into Yoo Joonghyuk's touch, though he didn't seem to realise it.
And Yoo Joonghyuk had moved closer in return, shoulders barely inches away from knocking into each other, completely unaware as well.
"...I mean, I have a passport," Kim Dokja was saying. "I'm not sure if it's still valid. I didn't really have the chance to travel around a lot so that thing's probably just lying around somewhere."
"We'll have to check that first then."
"Do we need a passport?"
"We'll be flying, if we're going," Yoo Joonghyuk said, nodding. "It takes too long if we take a ferry. We'd be wasting a whole day, just travelling."
"I see, is the flight short then?"
"An hour or so."
"Oh, that's quick."
"Yes. Like your one-way commute from home to work," Yoo Joonghyuk joked.
"Sure, pick on my choice to enjoy some time reading peacefully," Kim Dokja said dryly, gently kicking Yoo Joonghyuk's slippered foot with his own. "I can't even drive properly, the subway is the best option for me, you know. I could easily get into an accident because I wasn't paying attention. I don't have to worry about that on the subway, because I'm not the one driving the thing."
Serious-fucking-ly?!
Both of them?
Uriel was torn. There was a part of her that squealed and jumped with joy and there was yet another part that frowned and scoffed in disapproval.
Yoo Joonghyuk smirked and nudged Kim Dokja's foot back. "You learn things by practising."
"I don't want to be driving a subway train, I don't want to practice something like that either," Kim Dokja drawled and Yoo Joonghyuk rolled his eyes.
"Do you know how many people jump in front of the tracks and attempt suicide? In my panic, I might just flatten them over like pancakes instead of pulling the breaks."
Yoo Joonghyuk shook with soft laughter at Kim Dokja's words and honestly, Uriel didn't think it was even possible for that man to behave like this.
She didn't know if it was a good thing or not, because Yoo Joonghyuk, for once, seemed to have left behind all the tension that usually weighed him down.
He looked liberated as he leaned back on the sofa and stared at Kim Dokja with a faint smile.
It was an expression Uriel was unfamiliar with. She had never seen anything remotely close on his face in all the years she was acquainted with him.
"Imagine the news the next day. Someone might have even recorded it and once it goes on the internet, it'll look like I did it on purpose. Like someone jumps, I get scared and speed up and baam—Human pancake. With blood syrup and all."
"I don't know what even goes on in that head of yours," Yoo Joonghyuk's face would come off as expressionless to a stranger, but after all the years she had worked alongside him as his personal secretary, Uriel could tell that the man was smiling.
He was still smiling! Was the world ending or something?
"I'll bail you out if it happens," Yoo Joonghyuk said.
"I'll be on the national news," Kim Dokja said drolly. "I'll be famous for all the wrong reasons again."
"I'll just take you abroad then," Yoo Joonghyuk shrugged.
"Ooh, can I pick the place in that case?"
"Of course."
"I'll start thinking about now. Just in case I end up needing it in the future when I fail to master the subway train conductor techniques."
And the two of them lapsed into quiet chuckles.
The Jeju trip was looking like a hasty idea now. She would be stuck between this for four whole days, would she make it out alive without fainting from high blood pressure?
Maybe—Maybe—they might end up dating soon. It was possible.
She wouldn't be against it, but she wouldn't support it wholeheartedly either. Yoo Joonghyuk and dating never really went well, not just because of his personality and his absolute anti-romantic behaviour but also because he had too many enemies.
Having someone he cared for, and for it to be someone like Dokja who had no defences or support network was dangerous. He might as well have put a bright target on Kim Dokja's back and thrown him to the wolves.
But if they decided to date in secret, Uriel would support them to the best of her ability.
Yoo Joonghyuk wasn't exactly her friend, but if he ended up in trouble she would help him without a second thought. And Kim Dokja, she supposed she could call him a good friend.
So why wouldn't she want her friend and not-so-much-of-a-friend to be happy?
Geez, was she getting all sappy already?
. . .Who knows, maybe dating would change that dumbass boss of hers and she'd have an easier time at work once those two figured their shit out.
Kim Dokja thought all that talk about going to Jeju Island was one big joke until he got a text from Yoo Joonghyuk one day during the last few days of August asking him to be ready to leave soon and to put in a sick leave on Thursday morning.
. . .eh?
After some panicked, very confused back-and-forth texting, Kim Dokja realised it wasn't a joke after all. The boss and secretary had been super serious about this and had already planned everything apparently.
This cast Kim Dokja into trouble.
What now?
He didn't even know where his passport was!
'What if I don't have my passport?' he asked in the group chat with Yoo Joonghyuk and Uriel.
'No worries' Uriel replied.
What?!
'It's good if you can find it
If not, it's alright
It is not a necessity'
Kim Dokja read Yoo Joonghyuk's message a couple of times over.
What the fuck was that supposed to mean? How was a passport not a necessity? Sure, he wasn't exactly leaving the country, but a passport was rather basic when travelling, wasn't it? Especially by air.
Kim Dokja had never been on a flight before. He had no reason to go anywhere, not that he had the money to just go on whimsical travels either.
Could he just act like his passport was a driver's license? Not mandatory, but good to have? He didn't think that's how passports worked.
Kim Dokja heaved up his mattress and pulled out the folder with the important, official documents he had put there for safekeeping. He upturned the thing and luckily, found his passport.
Still valid. He let out a sigh of relief.
Thank heavens for Yoo Joonghyuk, Han Sooyoung and Lee Seolhwa pestering him to get a passport as soon as he returned from military service. He had insisted that he'd probably never need it, but they kicked him off to get it done with.