The Difference Between Payroll And A Hay Roll [for concordances]
Title: The Difference Between Payroll And A Hay Roll
Recipient: concordances
Rating: PG
Pairing(s): Junhwe/Donghyuk
Length: 2.1k
Summary: Between embossed pens and new secretaries, Junhwe isn't exactly having the best day. Office!au
The office smells extra musty today and Junhwe sneezes as he drags himself towards Donghyuk’s desk. He sees brown hair peeking up over the top of the secretary station as he throws himself across the top.
“It's not fair,” he groans, face pressed into the laminate counter. He stretches his arms out in front of himself, wiggling his fingers in the general area around Donghyuk’s face.
“When I got there one of those Winner Inc. assholes was already buttering up the client with donuts.” He blindly paws at Donghyuk’s face and hears a squawk when he connects with his nose.
“My stupid, embossed pens stood no chance.” He continues rubbing at Donghyuk’s nose even though the skin is feeling a little greasy today. Donghyuk should probably do something about that.
When Donghyuk doesn’t respond with something cutting or snappish, Junhwe opens his eyes in confusion. Only to find that his hand is connected to the face of some dude he’s never seen before.
Surprise jolts through his body and he scrambles upright so quickly that his knee smashes into the front of the desk.
“Who are you? Where's Donghyuk?”
“I’m Chanwoo, the new secretary,” The poor guy’s eyes are currently as wide as Junhwe’s had been when he was offered a permanent position out of his internship. The fact Hanbin’s little start up company was doing well enough to pay anyone had blown his mind.
“He’s, uh, I think he...” Chanwoo stammers, still looking shocked. “He told me to call him on extension 5080 if I needed anything?”
“Okay, thanks. You’d better be good at your job.”
Great now the guy thinks he’s weird and an asshole, but that’s better than him seeing the blush Junhwe can feel creeping up his neck. Junhwe hates when he comes off as anything other than the suave salesman he claims to be.
That information actually does help though. Their business occupies the top two floors in the office building and Donghyuk is apparently on the fifth and highest floor right now. He’ll have to go visit him later.
Junhwe slinks into the meeting room, eyes quickly scanning for Donghyuk. He sees him in the corner engaged in a conversation with Yunhyeong from advertising.
“Hey champ.” Bobby’s hand clamps down onto his shoulder while he’s debating the best way to approach, and he nearly leaps out of his skin. “So I was thinking, since our drug is herbal based and not synthetic, why not give out herbal tea?”
“Bobby, no self respecting doctor’s office, or pharmacy, is going to want herbal tea.” Jinhwan cuts in from across the room.
“Yeah, those guys guzzle coffee by the crate.” Hanbin adds, flicking off the light switch as he passes through the doorway.
Junhwe barely suppresses a groan.
Lights out means Hanbin is going to use the rickety old projector he’d found in a thrift shop. The thing uses honest to god plastic sheets that Hanbin actually writes notes on.
Meetings with the projector are exactly as painful as they sound.
He catches Donghyuk’s eye and mimes falling asleep. The fond smile he sends in response carries Junhwe almost all the way through the meeting.
Unfortunately, replaying Donghyuk’s smile will only get him so far. The clock on the wall ticks as Junhwe stares idly at a flyer with motivational clip art posted across from him. It’s not doing a very good job of motivating him.
The meeting room doesn’t even have a functioning coffee pot anymore, just a pile of instant coffee packets in a bowl. Junhwe had actually contemplated making a cup, but then he’d noticed that what he thought were sugar packets were really salt. He may need the extra boost, but he’s not about to drink coffee without sugar.
Their boss, Hanbin, was something of a child prodigy, and he started thinking up ways to make money from a young age. Here he is years later, selling performance enhancement drugs to doctor’s offices. Which is crazy considering Hanbin had been the guy who sold adderall out behind the gym according to Bobby. Not that anyone should believe anything Bobby tells them, but it doesn’t seem like that much of a stretch to Junhwe.
Hanbin’s success doesn’t make these meetings any less boring though. Numbers and targets mean nothing to Junhwe. He’d rather be out there peddling their goods to distributors. Especially since Hanbin has taken to running with poker analogies lately that go over Junhwe’s head.
“I think some of these mom and pop pharmacies could really be our blue chip.” Hanbin drones from the front of the room. Seriously, Junhwe has no idea what blue chip even means. “Once we get them selling our product, we could really see some returns.”
The meeting somehow manages to run a little long and he’s saved when he glances surreptitiously at his phone and realizes he has another appointment in 30 minutes.
“Hate to interrupt, but I have to go bribe people into buying our product with pens that no one cares about.” Junhwe stands abruptly, not at all sorry to be interrupting.
“But pens are useful,” Jinhwan supplies unhelpfully.
Jinhwan keeps a cup of pens on his desk and he’s the only person Junhwe knows who has managed to keep the same pens for almost an entire year. He’s somehow never lost any. Ever. Which is super freaky and clearly, Jinhwan’s opinion can’t be trusted.
“Yeah, but people lose pens,” Donghyuk scoffs in response. Junhwe knew he could count on Donghyuk to back him up.
“Right? Pens are gone in a day, but it’s harder to lose the memory of a really great muffin.” Junhwe adds effervescently.
“Hm, I think you might be onto something,” Hanbin says thoughtfully. “Get with Bobby later to go over the budget and we’ll see what we can do. Now get out of here.”
Junhwe doesn’t need to be told twice. He gives Donghyuk a wink and mouths a “sucks to be you” before hightailing it out of the room.
After his three o’clock appointment with yet another unreceptive doctor’s office, he wanders over to Donghyuk’s new desk. Usually Junhwe’s like catnip to the old ladies working reception in the clinics, but he’s been off his game all day. He still hasn’t spoken to his boyfriend today and he’s starting to get a little annoyed.
And of course, Donghyuk isn’t even at his desk. What is at his desk, however, is a steaming bowl of pasta.
Junhwe spends half a second weighing the pros and cons of eating someone else’s food. The bowl looks kinda big for one person. Surely, Donghyuk doesn’t need to eat all of it. In fact, if he doesn’t have the decency to be around when Junhwe needs him, he’s going to take this pasta as compensation.
“Seriously?” Donghyuk gripes, appearing just as Junhwe shovels a huge bite into his mouth.
“Where’s the cheese?” Junhwe garbles through a mouthful of sauce and noodles, a masticated piece flying out of his mouth. Luckily, it misses Donghyuk and lands on the table behind him. He can’t miss the scowl on Donghyuk’s face though.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I’ll remember to bring cheese next time so that when I run to the break room for napkins, you can sprinkle it into my pasta” Donghyuk slams said napkins on his desk. He sounds querulous, but Junhwe knows he secretly doesn’t mind. Or at least he secretly doesn’t mind too much.
Junhwe stabs some more penne and holds the fork out. Donghyuk rolls his eyes and leans forward to take the proffered bite. Junhwe’s aim is a little off because he gets distracted by the flutter of Donghyuk’s lashes and he accidentally pokes the corner of his mouth with the tines.
“Give me that,” Donghyuk laughs, grabbing the fork from him, all traces of fake ire gone. Their fingers brush and Junhwe’s stomach flutters at the contact. “Your Chu Chu Train privileges have been revoked.”
Junhwe rolls his eyes and crosses his arms, pretending to be annoyed even though he’s the one poking people. Donghyuk huffs and turns the next bite towards Junhwe.
They stand there for a few minutes, Donghyuk alternating between feeding Junhwe and himself.
He has a moment to feel grateful that Donghyuk is back in his own office again. When their old secretary had quit, Donghyuk had volunteered to move over to their desk and route any incoming calls to the proper people while he worked on his designs. Junhwe would have never have let him feed him like this where anyone could see. Their co-workers don’t need anymore fuel for teasing.
“So I heard you met Chanwoo.” Donghyuk hedges, sounding innocent enough, but Junhwe can tell from the twinkle in his eyes that he’s already heard about what happened.
“Yeah I did,’’ Junhwe responds woodenly, desperately not wanting to relive his embarrassment. He holds his breath while he waits for Donghyuk’s response.
Donghyuk just hums thoughtfully as he chews his food.
“Do you want to sit down? Tell me about your day?” Junhwe quickly adds before Donghyuk can open his mouth again, shaking his head at the last of the noodles. He may have started eating without asking, but he’s polite enough not to take the last bite. Even though he’s pretty sure Donghyuk brought such a big share of food on purpose.
“I actually have to get get these new logo ideas to Yunhyeong and see what he thinks.” Donghyuk sighs, apologetically running his free hand along Junhwe’s arm while his other grabs the empty bowl from him to set on the desk.
Junhwe’s shoulders slump and he sways closer to Donghyuk, pressing their chests together as his hands come up to rest on his hips.
He almost leans forward to kiss him, but no way is he getting caught participating in PDA at work again. Yunhyeong had made kissy faces at him for a month after he’d found them kissing in the stairwell. In Junhwe’s defense though, no one ever uses the stairs so he’d thought it was a relatively private place. It’s not his fault that the elevator broke down.
Still, kissing at work is off the table now. Even if Donghyuk’s door is shut. He settles for pressing a kiss against Donghyuk’s brow and giving his hips a squeeze.
The sunset is eerily yellow with the promise of a storm by the time Junhwe finally trudges out to the parking lot an hour after he should have already left. Bobby had caught him on the way out and dragged him to his office to go over the budget together.
He’s not sure why Bobby couldn’t just email the numbers to him, but he suspects it has something to do with the way his computer screen had stayed suspiciously blank with no tell-tale humming noise the entire time.
If Bobby spilled soda on another system unit, Hanbin’s going to kill him.
He stops thinking about work completely when he sees Donghyuk perched on the hood of his car, thumb moving around his phone quickly as he looks down at it.
As he gets closer, he can hear the sounds of some game pouring through the speakers. The phone makes a trumpeting noise and he’s either just won or lost the level. Junhwe mentally pats himself on the back for his great timing.
“You didn’t have to wait for me,” He says, as if his steps aren’t already lighter at the sight. “I could have just met you at your place.”
“I took the bus this morning and I’d already decided you’re my ride home.” Donghyuk shrugs as he hops off the car, tucking his phone into his pocket. Junhwe winces as the hood pops up slightly as it’s freed from his weight.
“Plus, I was deprived of your whining all day.” Donghyuk teases, reflexively wiping the seat of his pants off. For some reason, Donghyuk thinks his car is a comfortable place to lounge, and although it was just washed yesterday, Junhwe can admit that it isn’t always dust free.
“I don’t whine!” Junhwe splutters indignantly. He doesn’t okay? He complains in an entirely adult fashion like the adult that he is.
“Okay sure.” Donghyuk says flippantly, moving into Junhwe’s space. Junhwe opens his mouth to protest again, but shuts up when Donghyuk gives him a quick peck on his lips, sliding away just as quickly.
“Whatever. Let’s go home” Junhwe grumbles, his words and tone not matching the grin splitting across his face to mirror Donghyuk’s own.
Even if he couldn’t charm anyone else today, at least he can put that giddy expression on Donghyuk’s face. And isn’t that what really matters?
Recipient: concordances
Rating: PG
Pairing(s): Junhwe/Donghyuk
Length: 2.1k
Summary: Between embossed pens and new secretaries, Junhwe isn't exactly having the best day. Office!au
The office smells extra musty today and Junhwe sneezes as he drags himself towards Donghyuk’s desk. He sees brown hair peeking up over the top of the secretary station as he throws himself across the top.
“It's not fair,” he groans, face pressed into the laminate counter. He stretches his arms out in front of himself, wiggling his fingers in the general area around Donghyuk’s face.
“When I got there one of those Winner Inc. assholes was already buttering up the client with donuts.” He blindly paws at Donghyuk’s face and hears a squawk when he connects with his nose.
“My stupid, embossed pens stood no chance.” He continues rubbing at Donghyuk’s nose even though the skin is feeling a little greasy today. Donghyuk should probably do something about that.
When Donghyuk doesn’t respond with something cutting or snappish, Junhwe opens his eyes in confusion. Only to find that his hand is connected to the face of some dude he’s never seen before.
Surprise jolts through his body and he scrambles upright so quickly that his knee smashes into the front of the desk.
“Who are you? Where's Donghyuk?”
“I’m Chanwoo, the new secretary,” The poor guy’s eyes are currently as wide as Junhwe’s had been when he was offered a permanent position out of his internship. The fact Hanbin’s little start up company was doing well enough to pay anyone had blown his mind.
“He’s, uh, I think he...” Chanwoo stammers, still looking shocked. “He told me to call him on extension 5080 if I needed anything?”
“Okay, thanks. You’d better be good at your job.”
Great now the guy thinks he’s weird and an asshole, but that’s better than him seeing the blush Junhwe can feel creeping up his neck. Junhwe hates when he comes off as anything other than the suave salesman he claims to be.
That information actually does help though. Their business occupies the top two floors in the office building and Donghyuk is apparently on the fifth and highest floor right now. He’ll have to go visit him later.
Junhwe slinks into the meeting room, eyes quickly scanning for Donghyuk. He sees him in the corner engaged in a conversation with Yunhyeong from advertising.
“Hey champ.” Bobby’s hand clamps down onto his shoulder while he’s debating the best way to approach, and he nearly leaps out of his skin. “So I was thinking, since our drug is herbal based and not synthetic, why not give out herbal tea?”
“Bobby, no self respecting doctor’s office, or pharmacy, is going to want herbal tea.” Jinhwan cuts in from across the room.
“Yeah, those guys guzzle coffee by the crate.” Hanbin adds, flicking off the light switch as he passes through the doorway.
Junhwe barely suppresses a groan.
Lights out means Hanbin is going to use the rickety old projector he’d found in a thrift shop. The thing uses honest to god plastic sheets that Hanbin actually writes notes on.
Meetings with the projector are exactly as painful as they sound.
He catches Donghyuk’s eye and mimes falling asleep. The fond smile he sends in response carries Junhwe almost all the way through the meeting.
Unfortunately, replaying Donghyuk’s smile will only get him so far. The clock on the wall ticks as Junhwe stares idly at a flyer with motivational clip art posted across from him. It’s not doing a very good job of motivating him.
The meeting room doesn’t even have a functioning coffee pot anymore, just a pile of instant coffee packets in a bowl. Junhwe had actually contemplated making a cup, but then he’d noticed that what he thought were sugar packets were really salt. He may need the extra boost, but he’s not about to drink coffee without sugar.
Their boss, Hanbin, was something of a child prodigy, and he started thinking up ways to make money from a young age. Here he is years later, selling performance enhancement drugs to doctor’s offices. Which is crazy considering Hanbin had been the guy who sold adderall out behind the gym according to Bobby. Not that anyone should believe anything Bobby tells them, but it doesn’t seem like that much of a stretch to Junhwe.
Hanbin’s success doesn’t make these meetings any less boring though. Numbers and targets mean nothing to Junhwe. He’d rather be out there peddling their goods to distributors. Especially since Hanbin has taken to running with poker analogies lately that go over Junhwe’s head.
“I think some of these mom and pop pharmacies could really be our blue chip.” Hanbin drones from the front of the room. Seriously, Junhwe has no idea what blue chip even means. “Once we get them selling our product, we could really see some returns.”
The meeting somehow manages to run a little long and he’s saved when he glances surreptitiously at his phone and realizes he has another appointment in 30 minutes.
“Hate to interrupt, but I have to go bribe people into buying our product with pens that no one cares about.” Junhwe stands abruptly, not at all sorry to be interrupting.
“But pens are useful,” Jinhwan supplies unhelpfully.
Jinhwan keeps a cup of pens on his desk and he’s the only person Junhwe knows who has managed to keep the same pens for almost an entire year. He’s somehow never lost any. Ever. Which is super freaky and clearly, Jinhwan’s opinion can’t be trusted.
“Yeah, but people lose pens,” Donghyuk scoffs in response. Junhwe knew he could count on Donghyuk to back him up.
“Right? Pens are gone in a day, but it’s harder to lose the memory of a really great muffin.” Junhwe adds effervescently.
“Hm, I think you might be onto something,” Hanbin says thoughtfully. “Get with Bobby later to go over the budget and we’ll see what we can do. Now get out of here.”
Junhwe doesn’t need to be told twice. He gives Donghyuk a wink and mouths a “sucks to be you” before hightailing it out of the room.
After his three o’clock appointment with yet another unreceptive doctor’s office, he wanders over to Donghyuk’s new desk. Usually Junhwe’s like catnip to the old ladies working reception in the clinics, but he’s been off his game all day. He still hasn’t spoken to his boyfriend today and he’s starting to get a little annoyed.
And of course, Donghyuk isn’t even at his desk. What is at his desk, however, is a steaming bowl of pasta.
Junhwe spends half a second weighing the pros and cons of eating someone else’s food. The bowl looks kinda big for one person. Surely, Donghyuk doesn’t need to eat all of it. In fact, if he doesn’t have the decency to be around when Junhwe needs him, he’s going to take this pasta as compensation.
“Seriously?” Donghyuk gripes, appearing just as Junhwe shovels a huge bite into his mouth.
“Where’s the cheese?” Junhwe garbles through a mouthful of sauce and noodles, a masticated piece flying out of his mouth. Luckily, it misses Donghyuk and lands on the table behind him. He can’t miss the scowl on Donghyuk’s face though.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I’ll remember to bring cheese next time so that when I run to the break room for napkins, you can sprinkle it into my pasta” Donghyuk slams said napkins on his desk. He sounds querulous, but Junhwe knows he secretly doesn’t mind. Or at least he secretly doesn’t mind too much.
Junhwe stabs some more penne and holds the fork out. Donghyuk rolls his eyes and leans forward to take the proffered bite. Junhwe’s aim is a little off because he gets distracted by the flutter of Donghyuk’s lashes and he accidentally pokes the corner of his mouth with the tines.
“Give me that,” Donghyuk laughs, grabbing the fork from him, all traces of fake ire gone. Their fingers brush and Junhwe’s stomach flutters at the contact. “Your Chu Chu Train privileges have been revoked.”
Junhwe rolls his eyes and crosses his arms, pretending to be annoyed even though he’s the one poking people. Donghyuk huffs and turns the next bite towards Junhwe.
They stand there for a few minutes, Donghyuk alternating between feeding Junhwe and himself.
He has a moment to feel grateful that Donghyuk is back in his own office again. When their old secretary had quit, Donghyuk had volunteered to move over to their desk and route any incoming calls to the proper people while he worked on his designs. Junhwe would have never have let him feed him like this where anyone could see. Their co-workers don’t need anymore fuel for teasing.
“So I heard you met Chanwoo.” Donghyuk hedges, sounding innocent enough, but Junhwe can tell from the twinkle in his eyes that he’s already heard about what happened.
“Yeah I did,’’ Junhwe responds woodenly, desperately not wanting to relive his embarrassment. He holds his breath while he waits for Donghyuk’s response.
Donghyuk just hums thoughtfully as he chews his food.
“Do you want to sit down? Tell me about your day?” Junhwe quickly adds before Donghyuk can open his mouth again, shaking his head at the last of the noodles. He may have started eating without asking, but he’s polite enough not to take the last bite. Even though he’s pretty sure Donghyuk brought such a big share of food on purpose.
“I actually have to get get these new logo ideas to Yunhyeong and see what he thinks.” Donghyuk sighs, apologetically running his free hand along Junhwe’s arm while his other grabs the empty bowl from him to set on the desk.
Junhwe’s shoulders slump and he sways closer to Donghyuk, pressing their chests together as his hands come up to rest on his hips.
He almost leans forward to kiss him, but no way is he getting caught participating in PDA at work again. Yunhyeong had made kissy faces at him for a month after he’d found them kissing in the stairwell. In Junhwe’s defense though, no one ever uses the stairs so he’d thought it was a relatively private place. It’s not his fault that the elevator broke down.
Still, kissing at work is off the table now. Even if Donghyuk’s door is shut. He settles for pressing a kiss against Donghyuk’s brow and giving his hips a squeeze.
The sunset is eerily yellow with the promise of a storm by the time Junhwe finally trudges out to the parking lot an hour after he should have already left. Bobby had caught him on the way out and dragged him to his office to go over the budget together.
He’s not sure why Bobby couldn’t just email the numbers to him, but he suspects it has something to do with the way his computer screen had stayed suspiciously blank with no tell-tale humming noise the entire time.
If Bobby spilled soda on another system unit, Hanbin’s going to kill him.
He stops thinking about work completely when he sees Donghyuk perched on the hood of his car, thumb moving around his phone quickly as he looks down at it.
As he gets closer, he can hear the sounds of some game pouring through the speakers. The phone makes a trumpeting noise and he’s either just won or lost the level. Junhwe mentally pats himself on the back for his great timing.
“You didn’t have to wait for me,” He says, as if his steps aren’t already lighter at the sight. “I could have just met you at your place.”
“I took the bus this morning and I’d already decided you’re my ride home.” Donghyuk shrugs as he hops off the car, tucking his phone into his pocket. Junhwe winces as the hood pops up slightly as it’s freed from his weight.
“Plus, I was deprived of your whining all day.” Donghyuk teases, reflexively wiping the seat of his pants off. For some reason, Donghyuk thinks his car is a comfortable place to lounge, and although it was just washed yesterday, Junhwe can admit that it isn’t always dust free.
“I don’t whine!” Junhwe splutters indignantly. He doesn’t okay? He complains in an entirely adult fashion like the adult that he is.
“Okay sure.” Donghyuk says flippantly, moving into Junhwe’s space. Junhwe opens his mouth to protest again, but shuts up when Donghyuk gives him a quick peck on his lips, sliding away just as quickly.
“Whatever. Let’s go home” Junhwe grumbles, his words and tone not matching the grin splitting across his face to mirror Donghyuk’s own.
Even if he couldn’t charm anyone else today, at least he can put that giddy expression on Donghyuk’s face. And isn’t that what really matters?