Episode 02: Return of the Pikachu
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"I see," his friend says gently and for a while, Hyunseung thinks that he's going to lay off.
Unfortunately, he's only partially right because instead, Yoseob shifts the conversation to a different topic.
"Your hair, it's... different," he starts off, a silly smile on his face. "I didn't say anything last night because it was dark, but did you cut it yourself or something?"
And Hyunseung fingers his asymmetric fringe self-consciously, because it really had seemed like a good idea when he had cut it the morning before. Maybe he shouldn't have just taken a knife from the kitchen and chopped his shaggy black hair so haphazardly after all, but he had figured that a new city meant a new start, and a new start could start with a new hairstyle.
"I mean," Yoseob continues, "it covers one of your eyes, you know? And even when we were little all everyone could talk about was what pretty eyes you had."
And okay, yeah. That had probably been another reason, Hyunseung admits silently. Instead of revealing the reason behind his new hairstyle though, he simply brushed his bangs to the side so that both eyes were now visible.
"Happy?" he asks heatedly.
Yoseob smirks. "Hardly," he answers, "but I have styling gel in my bathroom if you want to use it."
And it's in the bathroom that Hyunseung ends up spending the rest of his morning with Yoseob quickly styling his hair and arguing about why Hyunseung should try out the brand new black eyeliner he just bought the other day like the two of them are a pair of teenage girls.
It's strangely fun, even if he ends up looking more like a girl than he normally did by the end of it all.
That's exactly how Hyunseung ends up looking when he finally goes to the headquarters of CUBE Corp. -- in a slimming black outfit Yoseob picked out for him and more eyeliner than all of the receptionist girls he sees in the lobby. That's probably where all of the trouble starts, because with delicate features and girlish eyes he probably fit in more than he thought.
"Name?" asks the pretty girl sitting at the receptionist's desk. She looks younger than his sister, and just like Hyunji she props her head on one hand with an elbow on the table and chews bubblegum like a little delinquent.
It makes him think of home.
"Jang Hyunseung," he answers with a nervous smile, hands behind his back docilely, "I called about taking Jang Hyunshik's -- my father's place, since he was too sick to respond to the president's job offer."
"My sympathies," the girl -- Kim Hyuna her nametag reads, with a cute pink heart drawn off to the side -- offers, although there's more apathy than actual sympathy in her voice. "Here are the documents that need to be filled out before I send you to speak with the interviewers. It shouldn't take more than an hour to complete them, and I'll turn them in immediately for you."
She reaches into a drawer beside her desk and pulls out one of the largest stacks of paper Hyunseung has ever seen off of a schoolteacher's desk, and when she hands them over to him he loudly gulps because he really wasn't expecting something like that. What little confidence he had mustered up for seeking out the job evaporates quickly as he tries to think of all of the necessary information required on those blank sheets of paper.
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"I'm done," he says maybe forty-something minutes later, neat black writing on every single page. Hyunseung's penmanship had always been excellent, and he's a little proud of his work even if it's nothing more than answers.
He carefully hands over the pile to Hyuna who hands him a torn piece of paper from her notepad in exchange.
Third floor, Conference Room 3-B; 4:00 PM it reads, and when he says it out loud there's probably confusion in his voice or something because the girl just laughs at him.
"That's where you have to go for the interview," she explains to him, "and when your appointment is. They'll have your papers by that time, so all you have to do is show up."
Hyunseung nods, shoving it into the pocket of Yoseob's skinny jeans and bowing respectfully. "Thank you for your help."
Hyuna wiggles her fingers at him, waving him off probably and he takes that as his cue to leave. Unfortunately, by the time he passes through the front doors she's already trying to call him back.
"Jang Hyunseung! You forgot to fill out your gender!"
Her words are enough to make the other receptionists giggle, and one of her friends -- Jiyoon -- even calls out that she can just fill it in herself. It's no problem after all.
Only it is, because Jang Hyunseung sounds like a boyish name for sure, but said person looked anything but completely boyish. Slender limbs and pretty lips, with girlish eyes lined in endless eyeliner and a high pitched voice.
In the end, Hyuna shrugs and simply circles F for female.
Hyunseung returns promptly at 3:50 that afternoon after a light lunch with Yoseob. The only reason he refused to walk in with a full stomach was because before they had gone out to eat, the younger boy had joked around about Hyunseung's nerves getting the best of him and how there was always the hilarious possibility that he would end up throwing up on his interviewers.
"Not. Helping," Hyunseung had growled, and now his stomach was growling because of Yoseob and his stupid jokes.
Nonetheless, he returns to the lobby of CUBE Corp. when the girl from before is no longer working, and part of him is disappointed because she really did remind him of his sister. A familiar sight would have probably helped to settle his nerves, even if Kim Hyuna was a complete stranger.
Taking out the paper she had given him hours earlier, he makes his way to the elevators and finds himself alongside a pair of handsome employees dressed up nicely in suits and ties as he waits for the doors to open.
"Hi!" one of them suddenly greets him with a surprising amount of familiarity, "Are you applying for a job here?"
Hyunseung can only nod slowly as he takes in the slightly shorter man. His smile is just as bright as Yoseob, and he gives off the same childish appearance as his roommate as well. They even seem like they're the same height, and meeting someone with so much in common with Yoseob is a little unnerving.
The man continues talking while Hyunseung observes, his hands moving along animatedly as he speaks. "Oh, that's so cool! It's about time we got new co-workers, right, Dongwoon?"
And the tall one -- Dongwoon, apparently -- nods in agreement and that's probably the first time Hyunseung takes him in. He's a little surprised at himself for not noticing earlier, but Dongwoon is rather gorgeous with the exotic facial features of a foreigner. He seems the epitome of manliness and Hyunseung can't help but feel jealous.
"Elevator's here, Kikwang sunbae," Dongwoon says softly, and that's when Hyunseung notices that the man has been eying him anxiously.
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"We're going to the fourth floor, by the way," Kikwang continues, nonetheless, and that's when Hyunseung realizes that he's closest to the elevator buttons. He politely presses the fourth floor button alongside the third floor one and lets his hand drop awkwardly once the task is done.
"Is it nice here?" Hyunseung asks as the light for the first floor comes to life as they pass it.
Kikwang shrugs, leaning against the wall of the elevator. "Nice enough. Just be polite and earnest and hardworking and you'll do fine, both in the interview and once you get the job."
Hyunseung takes the remaining minutes in the elevator to think over Kikwang's words, and when they finally reach the third floor, he turns around and bows respectfully.
"Thank you for your advice," he says politely, "hopefully we'll be working together the next time we meet."
And as the elevator doors close and he turns around to walk away, he swears he almost hears Dongwoon tiredly scolding his senior.
"Sunbae, you shouldn't have flirted like that. You're always flirting with the pretty ones."
"But I wasn't flirting!"
The first thing Hyunseung notices once he walks into the room at 4:00 sharp is that Conference room 3-B is spacious and sparsely decorated. Natural sunlight streams in from the windows and almost appear to spotlight the man sitting at the head of the table.
Hyunseung holds back a gasp because the man looks as young as him and even more handsome than the men in the elevator.
"I... Nice to meet you!" he says instead, bowing down at a complete ninety degree angle. He hopes that the blush on his face isn't too visible, and by the time he brings himself back up to look at the man, he's sure it's gone seeing as he's not getting a funny look.
Rather, the man smiles kindly and gestures at one of the many chairs around the table. "Go ahead and take a seat, Miss Jang Hyunseung."
Hyunseung stares blankly at the man and tilts his head a little in confusion. "Was that a joke?" he asks deadpan, "I'm a guy. A man. Not a woman." As if to emphasize this, he pats his chest so that the interviewer can hear the thumping even from his side of the room.
The other man seems to be trying to soak this in, with his focus shifting between Hyunseung and the first page of the stack of papers he had been forced to fill out earlier. "I'm sorry, but your information states that you're a woman?"
"A total mistake; a lapse of judgement, you could say," Hyunseung desperately assures him while mentally berating himself for allowing such a thing to happen. Really, it was bad enough that Yoseob was calling him pretty but to actually be mistaken as a woman? It was insulting to his manhood! "I have no idea what happened."
His interviewer gazes at his skeptically, and already Hyunseung can feel this interview going downhill. It's a frightening feeling and he kind of just wants to run back out the doors and book the first train home, but he ends up standing his ground.
"Okay then, Mr. Jang Hyunseung," the man continues, still shooting him dubious glances, "I'm Yoon Doojoon, and I'll be your interviewer for today."
After getting over that first obstacle, getting through the interview becomes much easier, if only because Hyunseung had decided on the spot to do everything he could to salvage the situation. Sure, his academic qualifications were lacking a little and his job experiences pretty much amounted to doing part-time jobs back at home, but it seemed like Doojoon was taking a shine to him at the very least.
"Last question," Doojoon started towards the end of the hour, "your father was the one our company called. He was a very loyal employee and even had ties with the president. So why are you here in his place?"
Hyunseung sighed. While he had known all along that question was going to pop up eventually, it still was going to be awkward answering.
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Doojoon strokes his chin thoughtfully, reaching over and taking the letter from Hyunseung.
"This is, without a doubt, my father's handwriting," he mutters after inspecting it, and he finally looks up at the younger man with a gentle smile on his face. "I'd say you pass. My father probably wouldn't mind letting the son of an old friend join the company anyway, especially since you have your father's blessing."
Yeah right, Hyunseung thinks to himself sarcastically, but the elation over getting the job is enough to push the thought from his mind.
He doesn't notice Doojoon's still suspicious gaze.
"Congratulations!" Yoseob squeaks once Hyunseung tells him the good news over a dinner at the blonde's family's restaurant, "This is great!"
Hyunseung laughs happily, more at ease now than he had been for most of the day, and happily taps Yoseob's cup of soju with his own. It feels great knowing that he has a job so quickly after moving to Seoul. In fact, it feels like all the pieces are falling perfectly in place, and at the moment he couldn't be happier.
"I met these nice guys as well, in the elevator," Hyunseung tells Yoseob, his cheeks flushed, "I think all of the people in the company must be good-looking or something. Even the president's son was good-looking!"
The blonde giggles, recklessly downing more of the soju despite his parents being mere feet away, "God, if you keep that up, people are really going to think you're a girl! For real!"
Hearing that just reminds Hyunseung of the incident from earlier, and his face turns even more red at the thought of it.
"Too late for that," he muttered.
Yoseob doesn't seem to hear him though, because he just keeps laughing and laughing and suddenly Hyunseung remembers that neither of them are particularly good at holding their liquor.
But it's too late for that too, he figures, and he downs another shot of soju anyway.
He regrets it a few hours later though as he and Yoseob drunkenly stumble towards their apartment. Or he would regret it if he had full control of his brain, but unfortunately the soju has taken over. He's too busy trying not to walk into walls the way Yoseob is to really be thinking about regret and headaches and the next morning's hangover anyway.
"You two look stupid," he hears off to the side, and when he finally manages to turn, he finds himself looking at yet another good-looking man.
"God, handsome guys just keep popping out of this city!" Hyunseung giggles, trying to keep them from bubbling out of his mouth with an unsteady hand, "Like daisies!"
Yoseob's neighbor just stares at him funnily, mouth a little open and if Hyunseung could think properly, it'd probably be obvious that the three words running through the man's head were "What the fuck," but again, he wasn't thinking properly and his tendency to become embarrassed was somewhat off because of the soju.
"Seob," the neighbor finally says after he's watched the blonde try to insert his keychain accessory into the lock rather than his house key enough times, "you and your little girlfriend are wasted."
"Seungie isn't my girlfriend, Poppin' Dragon" Yoseob giggles, just as loudly as Hyunseung and making just as much sense, "My noooooooona. Noona, you're so pretty!"
"If you're gonna be like that," Hyunseung slurs, shoving Yoseob to the side so that he can try twisting the still locked doorknob, "you might as well call me unni, dumbass. You're such a girl!"
They drunkenly shove each other for a while until they both kind of just pass out in front of their door, and that's when Yoseob's neighbor finally steps into action. He takes the keys from Yoseob and eventually drag both men onto the couches with a disgust sniff once he's done.
"Pathetic," he mutters sullenly before he shuts the door behind him.
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They both wake up the next morning to bad hangovers and a grumpy neighbor holding out two glasses of water for them.
"Thanks, Junhyungie," Yoseob says like there's nothing weird about having someone staring at him as he's recovering from his hangover. It's Yoseob's complete acceptance of the stranger that convinces Hyunseung to take the other glass and drink the water given to him, although he still keeps one eye open on the man.
"You two were completely shit-faced last night, and I'm going to be late for work at this rate," Junhyung grunts, and Hyunseung tries to remember even meeting this guy the night before, but nothing comes up.
However, something seems to click in Yoseob's head at least, because the boy snaps his fingers and turns to face Hyunseung, albeit more slowly than he would have normally.
"That's right! Junhyung here works at CUBE, too!"
Hyunseung turns to Junhyung and smiles as much as he can despite feeling like complete shit. "I guess you'll be my sunbae then?"
Junhyung shoots him an unreadable look and settles onto the living room floor awkwardly, although Yoseob doesn't seem to notice the tension his friend is feeling.
"As long as you don't hit on me like you did last night," Junhyung deadpans, "I mean, I know I'm hot and everything, but just don't. Then we'll talk about me being your sunbae."
When Yoseob bursts into unstoppable, maniacal laughter, Hyunseung flushes and wonders if his roommate could just choke on his spit or something.
That'd be nice.
Junhyung grudgingly ends up lending him a suit for work with the condition that Hyunseung obediently does his errands at work. It's not necessarily a bad trade, it's just that once they finally get to work it seems like Junhyung is more busy than he had let on.
"Twenty-six copies of this document, and fifteen of this one, in color," Junhyung tells him coolly, "and deliver them to conference room 6-E before the hour is up."
"I thought Yoseob told you to take care of me, not drown me in work," Hyunseung grumbles once he's far enough away that he wouldn't get any flack for it.
After he had recovered from his hangover that morning and taken a much-needed shower, Yoseob had happily introduced the two of them and suggested that Junhyung be Hyunseung's guide for the day.
"He'll be like your guardian dragon!" Yoseob had chirped, although Hyunseung had no clue where the dragon part had come in but whatever. Having a guy help him figure out his way around his new job seemed nice enough.
Unfortunately, rather than be helpful, Junhyung had managed to convert him into little more than a glorified assistant.
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"Who?" he hears a familiar voice ask from behind, and when Hyunseung turns around, he finds himself face to face with one of the men from the elevator from the day before.
"Kikwang... sunbae?" Hyunseung asks hesitantly, and he's rewarded with a bright smile.
Kikwang takes the documents from him and starts skimming through the contents, walking alongside his newest co-worker. "I'm glad you remembered me! And that you got the job. Congrats! So... what's your name?"
And it's like Kikwang's good mood is contageous, because Hyunseung ends up smiling as well.
"Jang Hyunseung. Nice to meet you."
They walk in silence for a little while after that, Kikwang just following Hyunseung to the copying room before he finally starts talking again.
"So," he asks, and it might be Hyunseung's imagination, but there seems to be a hint of nervousness in his voice, "how do you feel about going out for drinks later?"
Hyunseung doesn't think much of it then, but that's probably where he should have stopped Kikwang, stepped back, clarified very slowly "I have one X chromosome and one Y chromosome -- just like you -- in case you were thinking otherwise," and asked him to reconsider his offer.
But the fact is that he doesn't. Although even if he said something, it probably wouldn't have mattered.
"I'm sorry, my roommate probably wants me home early. He said something about going out to a sauna since I haven't been in Seoul for a while."
Kikwang blinks, and leans over a little bit, before he asks in a tiny voice "He?"
Hyunseung nods slowly in reply. "Yeah. Me and Yoseob go way back." It seems odd that Kikwang would be disturbed by that, because men went to saunas together all the time, didn't they?
"Oh," Kikwang says, and he seems a little disappointed for some reason. "I see. Well, I should probably get back to work. Dongwoon is hopeless without me."
He wanders away somewhat aimlessly after they say their farewells, and Hyunseung idly wonders if there are a few loose screws missing in his head because Kikwang seems so very absent-minded when he leaves.
After his first day of work, Yoseob takes him out to a sauna just as promised.
Unfortunately, Junhyung is dragged along for the ride, but that's fine because Hyunseung hasn't been to a sauna in ages and he's going to enjoy this even if his senior starts biting his head off for no reason.
"You know," Junhyung says once they're all in the water and Yoseob's at the other end of the bath fiddling with the temperature controls, "the guys at work seem to think you're a girl even though your badge says you're a guy."
Hyunseung frowns immediately, and covers himself up with the towel he's holding even more. "I don't know why they would think that, other than the president's son," he whines, "I mean, yeah, I messed up on my application and got put down as woman instead of a man, but I don't see how anyone else could come up with something stupid like that."
"So you're not a girl?" Junhyung asks, an eyebrow arched and Hyunseung wants to punch him in the face. Maybe it would fix that lisp of his.
"Definitely not. I'm a man."
Junhyung looks at his junior and scoffs a little. "A real man wouldn't cover himself up like that," he points out mockingly.
Hyunseung just kind of pouts at him and tries to submerge into the water until it hits his chin. It's really unfair that no matter how much he says he's male, everyone seems to assume that he's not. He wasn't even that girly, compared to real girls.
"I went to one of these when I was younger," he says after a few minutes of awkward silence, "and I didn't really have that good of a time because something really stupid happened involving a stampede of naked men and a five year old me. I would say that I never want to see a naked man again, but I can't, so at least I can say I never want to show myself naked in front of strangers like that again."
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"It's things like that that make people think you're a girl just trying to pass off as a guy or something stupid like that," he tells Hyunseung, "but you know what? I'll have your back at work."
Hyunseung turns to look at him, eyes wide and hopeful and he comes closer so that he can hold onto Junhyung's arm.
"Really? You mean it?"
Junhyung laughs, and smiles at Hyunseung for what probably is the first time. It's sweet, and Hyunseung thinks he probably should smile like that more often.
"That's right, princess, I'll make a man out of you."
and with that, i'm done, i'm happy, i'm proud. i could have done better with characterization and i initially wanted hyunseung's traumatic naked men!a la mulan experience to happen in fic, but i'm content. yay for 4700+ words!
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i love how hyunseung doesn't even have to try to convince anyone that he's a girl and they just assume. and all the possibilities of a pairing! yoesob, the childhood friend, kikwang the flirty sunbae, dongwoon the mysterious guy, doojoon the coveted boss, and junhyung the guardian (lol!) dragon. i really like this, anon, and would love to see it continued!
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i hope i can continue this, or better yet rewrite it so that i can make it flow better and come to a better conclusion, but it seems that only timed challenges seem to inspire me these days.
thanks so much for taking the time to read through this, anon. i know it was a monster to read. XD
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