#23: Coloring (Jongdae’s life)
Prompt: #23
Title: Coloring (Jongdae’s life)
Pairing: Chen/Dongwoo; ninja!Hongbin/Hyuk and ninja!Kwanghee/Siwan
Rating: PG
Word count: 6985 words
Summary: Sunshine assistant, Jang Dongwoo, at your services.
It took Jongdae, at least, six years to finally get to where he is right now. From an assistant photographer to the actual photographer, to a fashion critique at a not-that-known magazine to - finally - editor assistant and then, chief editor of one of the most successful and popular magazines in the whole country, Vogue Korea.
And that’s why he takes everything seriously, from the beginning until the very end, just like his whole career, he wants to make the magazine as successful as possible. So far his efforts are paying off pretty well.
"Sir, we're still trying to find you a new assistant, it has been a little hard since you fired Byunghee at the beginning of this week, he was the best so far and it seemed like you thought the same, sir." Jongdae's secretary, Jinah, says from the door. Jongdae was just a little distracted with the stack of papers right in front of him, this week's deal with a new 'batch' of models - and also Lacoste's new limited collection - is going to be closed and it's just now that Jongdae notices the cup of americano missing at his right side.
He pinches the bridge of his nose and drops his pen, Jinah, who's still standing at the door flinches and apologizes, telling Jongdae that she'll soon be back with his usual drink.
He lets out a sigh, all this drama just because Byunghee dropped a whole cup of coffee on Jongdae's favorite sweater and, if that wasn't enough, it also hit his new pair of jeans and the papers all over his table.
By thinking about it again, Jongdae wants to tear apart all these papers lying on his table - including Jung Byunghee, damn it. It wasn't just because, it was well deserved and if it happens again, Jongdae swears that he'll make sure that the culprit will be unemployed for a really long time.
He's so busy thinking about this future person's misery that he doesn't even notice Jinah knocking and entering his office, carefully putting that cup of americano far from his important papers, but close enough for his arm to reach it when extended.
Im Jinah is possibly the best secretary he could've asked for, only if he could say the same about his assistants.
Since the beginning he'd been unlucky.
First Nam Woohyun, who was capable of getting distracted by his own reflex and would give him the wrong schedules of the photograph sessions and meetings.
Then Bang Minsoo, who was too good looking to just be an assistant, but too lazy to be anything, first week and he'd already messed up all of his belongings, from papers to even toothpaste, everything was a mess and he couldn't find a single thing.
After him, it all went downhill.
Lee Jaehwan, who was too cheerful early in the morning; Jung Taekwoon, whose voice was too soft and low - but those aren't real problems, it was just Jongdae being picky and annoyed at everything.
The one before Byunghee, Yoo Changhyun, was too clumsy, it was the kid's first job and Jongdae now is judging who decided to hire him.
It lasted a week.
But Jung Byunghee had the assistant position for a little more than three months, that's the longest someone lasted by Jongdae's side.
Jongdae releases a restless sigh, there's still a load of work for him to do today, not counting the ones mentioned before, the most important so far is that the famous rookie photographer, Lee Hongbin, scheduled an interview to fill one of the vacant positions to be part of the official photographers team for Vogue Korea and Jongdae is the one in charge of it, he'd seen Hongbin's works before, he could recruit him according to what he wants, the interview is just a formality, but he can't show favoritism.
Not in this world, when someone can jump out of nowhere and steal his current position. This job is too precious for Jongdae, he can't risk losing it.
But whatever, right now, what really matters is getting rid of everything on top of his desk. Jongdae takes a sip of his americano and gets his pen ready.
First task of the day is about to be done.
When lunch time nears, Jinah interrupts Jongdae's workings, those unwelcomed papers are long gone and his secretary is here to remind him that he needs to go get something to eat before the said important interview.
"Thank you." Jongdae says and Jinah leaves the office with her usual soft smile, he sighs, putting the magazine down. Different from what most people would think, Jongdae is not taking a break or something, because even though he checks every single detail before the magazine is published, he thinks that there will always be a point where he can make it better.
Rubbing his tired eyes - due to him staring at the same page for the past fifteen minutes-, Jongdae pushes his armchair and gets up, nearing the hanger a few centimeters away from the door and putting his red coat on.
He passes through the half opened door and closes it, walking by Jinah's desk all the way to the elevator at the end of the hall, waiting for it to arrive, so he can go down to the restaurant at the second floor.
The ring announces the arrival of the elevator, opening its doors and Jongdae steps in, pressing the button and hoping he'll be able to eat soon.
"Hello, chief editor, Jongdae. Fancy meeting you here." it's Chanhee, one of the columnists, Chanhee usually talks about the popular tendencies, but, right now, in Jongdae's point of view, he thinks that whatever is this that Chanhee is wearing, it needs to be set on fire and it does not look like something that someone who knows a single thing about fashion would dare wear, ever.
He doesn't reply Chanhee with words, but with a bow of his head, Jongdae can not trust his tongue if he opens his mouth to speak. The reason for Jongdae's internal uprising is that Chanhee is wearing the most ridiculous jacket he's ever seen, it's silver with purple stripes and, if it couldn't get worse, Chanhee is also wearing a green scarf around his neck and his jeans are yellow.
Jongdae darts out of the elevator without uttering a single word when it shows that the second floor is already here, better be quiet and just pretend it didn't look horrendous - even though it did.
He walks next to the glass walls, showing the restaurant that is yet to get packed, right now, most employees are working, since their lunch break starts in a few minutes.
Jongdae passes through the entrance and takes a seat next to the window, looking outside, still thinking about earlier, why are all of my assistants so far so terrible?
"What would you like today, sir?" the waiter asks him with a small smile.
"Just that Ceasar Salad I always get and a cup of lemonade." Jongdae pushes the menu the waiter gave him away without even opening it, still staring outside like it’s the best thing he could be looking at - which is true.
If Jongdae could be very honest, he’s pretty much alone in this industry - though his secretary is amazing, he can’t just count on her for everything.
Jongdae dreams of the day something like this will happen, him, finding someone to be by his side, maybe that’s why most people who work here with important positions are 99,9999% single.
((But Jongdae is 100% sure Jinah is dating Park Chanyeol, photographer assistant of one of their best photographers, Shim Changmin.))
His salad arrives quickly, Jongdae feels ridiculously full at the end of his meal, finishing his drink and setting a few bills on the table, he knows the price by head, he always orders the same thing every single day.
The waiter can’t even reach the table to tell him goodbye when Jongdae is already out of the door, swinging his arms from side to side, the only time he can be a little less uptight is after his lunch when most workers are busy and he’s the only one left on his floor - reason to why he’s pretty happy right now.
Before reaching the elevator, he checks the clock, a little past noon, he has around twenty five minutes before that interview, he can stop by his office, rest and then head to the room when it’ll be happening, one floor below his own office.
The ride upwards is quick, even quicker compared to when he went to the restaurant, taking a deep breath and closing his eyes, why is working so damn stressful? But he heard Lee Hongbin is not someone to give trouble, so that’s one less worry, all he needs is someone to take the assistant position.
He walks out of the elevator all the way to the end of the corridor, opening the door and not seeing Jinah there - it’s also her lunch break after all -, but instead, he sees too much pink and lemon coloured pants with a neon orange shirt, a sky blue jacket and, if that wasn’t enough, along with a fluffy backpack. Jongdae stops on his tracks, is this some carnival parade photoshoot or………
“Hello?” Jongdae attempts to start conversation to at least know who’s the person and why this person is here. “Are you lost or something?”
The person, Jongdae notices, is a male and the only thing he can notice is that he has really weird taste in clothes and everything else, his hair is pink, Jongdae first paid attention to the hair but after looking at him for a little more than ten seconds, you get totally distracted by his clothes and the way he’s smiling, too bright for such a serious establishment.
“Are you Kim Jongdae?” the male asks with a cheerful voice and Jongdae cringes when he nears him, he feels like he’d get blind by all those colours dancing in front of his eyes right now.
It surprises him a little to notice that they’re almost the same height - but coughs Jongdae is wearing insolescoughs.
“Are you? Are you? I’m Jang Dongwoo by the way, I think I applied for a job here a few weeks ago and someone called me asking if I was still unemployed, though, I was helping my mom out at her restaurant, I think it’s okay, right? So that person who called said I got a position that was currently empty.”
“Assistant?” Jongdae asks bored, but still totally affected with what’s in front of him, talking way too much and making little sense, he almost misses the excited nod of his new assistant's head, Dongwoo. “Can you start working right away?”
“That’s why I’m here.” he replies with another smile, wider as if that was possible to even happen.
Jongdae sighs, this will do.
“What do I have to do?” Dongwoo asks with hopeful eyes and Jongdae motions with his hands for Dongwoo to follow him into his office.
Lots of things.
Jongdae took a little less than half an hour to explain what Dongwoo needed to do - right on time - and now he’s running to where he’s supposed to go with the contract papers in hands, the interview room.
At the section with the chairs for waiting he finds two persons waiting, one is, obviously, Lee Hongbin and the other is hard to focus from the place he is right now, but Jongdae is quite sure that he knows that idiot.
“Hwan Kwanghee, go back to your work, as far as I know you have a photoshoot with Lee Sungjong to take care of today, stop harassing everybody who’s near you.” Jongdae says when he’s less than three meters away from both man.
“Wow boss, okay, I’m going, I’m going,” Kwanghee rolls his eyes and waves his hands towards Jongdae, turning back to Hongbin and smiling. “So, are you auditioning to be a model?”
“You’re so out of yourself right now,” Jongdae gives Kwanghee a push, trying to force him to just leave without uttering more words, he still has work to finish, but he keeps on fooling around the floors, typical. “Siwan is going to kill you if you make him wait while holding the lighting again.”
“See you all later, hopefully.” Kwanghee takes large steps towards the elevator and, them, to the usual studio he uses on the seventh floor.
“Let’s get into the room,” Jongdae opens the door and waits for Hongbin to get up from his current seat. “This is going to be interesting, ever since I got the position, this is the first time that I’ll be evaluating and hiring someone, so what did you bring with you?”
Hongbin pats the briefcase under his arm and smiles nervously.
It doesn’t take much time, Jongdae is soon back to his floor, happily holding those same contract papers with him, signed. He mentally claps his hands for himself, another great deal, just like the collab with Etude House.
“Hello, sir,” Jinah greets him when he sets foot inside the room. “I see that you’re in a good mood, I also noticed that your new assistant is already here, is he okay?”
“Yes, I think so, as first impression, aside from you know,” Jongdae moves his hands up and down his body and laughs. “He seems to learn pretty quickly.”
“I’m glad, I went to check up on him and he was done with pretty much everything, so I sent him home.” Jinah says and looks away, Jongdae assumes that she’s worried that he’ll scold her, but today he’s in a great mood, which is just a little rare, so he lets it pass with a few taps on her desk and a small grin.
“Great, thanks!” Jongdae turns his back to her and enters his office, closing the door, everything looks pretty much okay, the stack of papers he finished in the morning that were lying at that small table near the door are gone for real, sent for the ones in charge of organizing the contents of the magazine, Jongdae went through all the articles, from makeup to fashion, from an article about Lee Hyunwoo’s new house to a discussion about the outfits Jung Eunji wore on her drama Trot Lovers.
Dongwoo did a good job today, Jongdae hopes he’ll do the same next week, today is Friday already, which means that once the clock hits six in the afternoon, he’s going to close his office, buy expensive vodka on his way home and run to catch the broadcast of One Love that starts one hour and a half after he leaves.
What a great way to spend his Friday nights - all of his nights, actually.
Jongdae notices that ever since Dongwoo started working for him, they settled a routine, everything is in place, everything is on time and Dongwoo is quick. He doesn’t have a single thing to complain which is quite something to say coming from him.
When he arrives, Dongwoo is already there, doing his daily tasks, finishing them earlier and leaving earlier, it’s funny because Jongdae’s last assistants were so slow that it looked that they slept during their shifts.
It’s good because Jongdae is not a fan of making conversation while he’s at work, besides, he doesn’t do it when he’s not at work as well, so it’s okay for him either way, everybody ends up happy, even Jinah.
Jongdae also notices that his humor is a lot better than it used to be, if it’s not for him greeting good morning to every single person he meets on his way to this office, it’s him saying goodbye when he’s leaving. Maybe it’s him knowing that everything is on place that gets him this happy, it’s been a while since things had been like this.
All the recent photoshoots have been going nicely, Kwanghee is not causing much trouble and Hongbin is still making the preparations for his first one, Jongdae should consider being friends with him, like, for real. But if Hongbin is nice and friendly, so is Dongwoo, who’s also very tidy with everything he does, he’s all smiles and laughs, brightening up the office - says Jinah especially, she spends most of her time sat behind a desk and apparently Dongwoo makes her company and chat with her once he’s done, right before leaving the building.
For the first in such a long time since he has been working here, Jongdae can sincerely say that he’s happy with the current environment - if you take aside Kwanghee’s antics and Siwan’s complaints.
But did Jongdae ever mention to someone one of his old dreams before he became the chief editor? He doesn't think he did and he doesn’t think he will - because hearing let’s be real, you’re not tall enough to be a model from a famous company is not the greatest thing, so he gave up, why keep trying when he knew that he’d hear the same thing all the damn time?
It’s true, Jongdae once wanted to be a model, but he can’t complain about the place he’s right now, he loves it and it makes up for everything that he couldn’t achieve.
It’s not something he does all the time, but Jongdae likes to watch as the new photographer works at least once, so today is the day Hongbin has work to do with Han Sanghyuk, one of the youngest at the high top professional modelling in the city, who’s going to wear some pretty and expensive clothes that their stylist, Kim Kibum, chose, the man has a really good hand and view for fashion, as expected.
Jongdae makes his way, happier than the usual, to the set for the photoshoot, he greets every person he sights and then he proceeds to find Hongbin, who’s adjusting his camera, fixing the position of the lighting and telling Sanghyuk a few things while the hairstylist tries to do her job - not everything at the same time though, Hongbin’s not superman or anything -, but Soojung doesn’t look really amused by how Sanghyuk keeps on nodding his head to Hongbin’s words while she’s trying to work with his hair, her face shows it clearly.
“Hello,” Jongdae greets both and Sanghyuk bows at him, Soojung frowns and gives up, walking away and back to the changing room where she can gossip with her friend Jihyun, Hongbin smiles at Jongdae while playing with the strap of the camera he currently has in hands. “Don’t mind my presence here, I came to watch Hongbin’s first job here for the magazine.”
Hongbin rubs one of his arms and looks at Sanghyuk, like he’s worried and Jongdae notices it, he knows that most of the time he looks like someone who’s going to make you go down with his words because he has the power, but he hopes he didn’t pass this impression on Hongbin because he looks like someone who’d get truthfully afraid to talk to him if something like that makes bugs his subconscious.
Jongdae watches as Dongwoo comes running towards him from the front door, a clipboard under his arm and he does as Jongdae did before, greeting everybody on his way until he’s standing next to him and in front of Hongbin and Sanghyuk.
“Hello.” he says and all the three of them say hello back, Dongwoo smiles for a few more seconds at them before he turns to Jongdae. “You forgot your papers on top of your desk, you mentioned that you’d need them and I thought that I, as your assistant, should bring those to you.”
Dongwoo waves the clipboard in front of his face and Jongdae reaches out at it, flipping through the pages filled with nothing, they’re brand new paper sheets and them Jongdae remembers why he’d bring these with him, he planned on making annotations about what exactly he’ assume that Hongbin would be good at, so he'd make the job easier for him and Hongbin in the near future.
Jongdae thanks Dongwoo when he’s done with staring at the blank pages. “Don’t worry about me,” he turns to Hongbin and Sanghyuk. “I’ll just watch, you don’t need to try to impress me or anything, really, I’m just watching, consider me as a staff member.”
Hongbin nods slowly, like he’s calculating what he has to say from now on and Jongdae frowns, that’s not what he planned.
“Nothing will happen,” Jongdae repeats his assurance words, Hongbin looks at him, eyes wide and Sanghyuk bids goodbye, heading to the middle of the set because the stylist is calling him to do one last check up at his outfit. “I hope I didn’t scare you, I swear I’m a good person.”
Hongbin loosens up and laughs, still a little apprehensive, but Jongdae clasps a hand on his shoulder with a friendly smile and a few staff look at him weirdly.
“Don’t mind the weird stares from the people around, they’re just not used to me smiling like this,” his whispers while trying not to laugh and cause someone like Changmin to trip for stopping to stare at him while he’s passing by, Jongdae looks around and sees Dongwoo distracted with the coffee machine a few meters away from them. “It’s just that this is the first time ever that my assistant does things properly and I don’t get stressed over anything he would do wrong for the whole day and week.”
Hongbin doesn’t look that convinced, but he nods because this story is quite plausible and it does look like the workers are startled or horrified.
“Can I stay too?” Dongwoo pops in and Jongdae thinks that why not? He had been doing a really great job and if he wants to stay, as long as he doesn’t ruin anything, that’s okay, so he nods and Dongwoo gets the message.
“So,” Jongdae speaks to Hongbin who’s currently observing as Sanghyuk walks around the set, he looks at the boy too and tries to unveil what’s the concept for this section of the magazine, but he can’t think of anything because Sanghyuk is wearing a dark blue collared loose shirt along with jeans and a pair of sneakers and the set is not of help as well because it just looks like an empty room. “What’s exactly this shoot about?”
“Oh,” Hongbin releases the strap and lets the camera hang around his neck, rubbing his hands against each other and turning from the set to Jongdae and again to the set. “You see that the lights up there are off,” he points to the ceiling where three spotlights were supposed to be shining, but instead, he sees dozen of light bulbs there, it looks like someone spent a good amount of time working in that because Jongdae doesn’t remember anyone installing it up there. “So the dark ceiling is supposed to be the sky and those are the stars,” he explains and someone turns the light for those on, Jongdae watches at it lights up the ceiling weakly, enough to make it look like the night sky. “And the set down here is supposed to be some kind of rooftop, it can be anything, really, but I wanted to fit something in the theme dancing under the stars and this was the result, I’m sorry it took me a while to actually do my first shoot since you hired me, but I kind of had a hard time putting those light bulbs there and it took longer than I intended to.”
Jongdae is still staring at everything, from the ceiling to the set to Hongbin and then Sanghyuk who’s blowing air at his fringe. He gives Hongbin a thumbs up because there isn’t really something he can say to him aside from good job, but he’s going to save that for when this is done.
Hongbin looks around shyly, like he’s trying to get everyone’s attention, but he doesn’t want to scream or be loud. Jongdae claps his hands and everybody look at him, Dongwoo runs over to where he is - he went away to check the coffee machine again - and stands by his side.
“Work!” is the only thing Jongdae says and motions for Dongwoo to follow him, nearing the set a little more and standing a few meters away from the working photographer.
Jongdae observes everything along with Dongwoo, a little more intently than his assistant, now he knows why Sanghyuk is already a famous model at the age of nineteen and why Hongbin is also a famous photographer at the age of twenty one, both are dazzling when they’re working, immersed on what they like, Sanghyuk in front of the camera and Hongbin behind one, Jongdae wished he had the passion to keep going with all the modelling he wanted to do when he was earlier, but he backed away, maybe he didn’t want it that much after all.
“-are you listening to me?” Dongwoo asks waving a hand in front of Jongdae’s face, Jongdae blinks and looks at Dongwoo, he got too distracted watching the photoshoot roll that he didn’t notice that Dongwoo was talking to him.
“I’m sorry.” Jongdae replies while trying to hold his embarrassment for being caught almost dozing off added to him only paying attention to what’s in front of him and not to his surroundings.
“It’s okay, I just asked you why do you look at them so intently like you wished you were the one there,” Dongwoo catches Jongdae off guard, is it that obvious? “Because, I mean, I get that at the beginning it was very interesting, but they’re kind of done and you’re still staring at it like you were when it all started.”
“Why are you asking me this?” Jongdae looks away and takes notice that indeed, Hongbin is done and Sanghyuk is already off the set and probably changing clothes and that he forgot to take notes.
“I don’t know,” Dongwoo says with honesty. “It looked like it was important for you.”
“Doesn’t matter.” Jongdae kills the talk and starts to walk towards Hongbin to greet him with the good job he planned to earlier. Dongwoo follows his lead.
After everybody leaves this room, only Jongdae and Dongwoo are left, Jongdae is quite sure all the work he had to finish today is done and so is Dongwoo’s, when he turns to his assistant to dismiss his for the day, he’s met by Dongwoo walking towards the middle of the set.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Jongdae hisses, but all that Dongwoo does is open his arms and spin under the light bulbs that are turned off. “Let’s go down to the office.”
But Dongwoo doesn’t stop his previous actions and Jongdae has to go there himself to make him stop his antics and just do what he says, which is in vain, because Dongwoo stops spinning, but holds his arm with a loose grip.
“Have you ever danced or thought about it and never did?”
“Huh?” Jongdae shakes his head in annoyance at him.
“You know, dancing under the stars.” Dongwoo says excited, eyeing their surroundings and Jongdae starts to question his assistant’s sanity.
“I don’t like to dance.” Jongdae declines Dongwoo’s question and shakes his arm off of his hold, preparing himself to run to his office and then leave, today he’s tired and he doesn’t even know why.
“No, wait,” Dongwoo says and Jongdae stops on his tracks, heaving a sigh and knowing that he’ll probably regret this later, but he still walks back to Dongwoo’s side. “Do you want to dance under the stars?”
Jongdae snorts and Dongwoo’s expression stays still, the same smile is there and without saying anything he presses that same button Hongbin’s staff pressed earlier and the dim light is on. Dongwoo extends a hand and, surprisingly, Jongdae catches himself reaching out and taking it, Dongwoo’s smile grows wider and he pulls Jongdae closer, spinning like before, but a little slower, Jongdae almost gets tangled with his own legs and he tries to not look like he has two left feet for dancing.
Dongwoo’s guiding his every steps and Jongdae didn’t imagine him in a situation like this, much less enjoying it, but maybe it’s just Dongwoo’s happiness rubbing on him.
During the next week, Jongdae is called to watch Kwanghee take care of his photoshoot, maybe it was Siwan asking him to do it because he couldn’t stand being on the same room as the photographer, along with the staff and models, but then, he wouldn’t be alone with him, but speaking of Kwanghee, everything is possible.
But in the end, Jongdae understands why he was called.
When he pushes the door to the studio open, he sees five puppies in collars and Siwan trying to get them to stop running in circles around him, just like in the movies, he’s trapped and all that Kwanghee is doing is laugh at his face. Jongdae clicks his tongue and closes the door so there will be no puppies running around the building.
“Finally,” Siwans whispers in relief and Kwanghee turns his laughing figure towards Jongdae, he crouches and takes the white puppy in his arms, running a hand through its fur and avoiding to be licked in the face. “Can you lend me a hand?”
Jongdae looks at Siwan who looks like he could die at any moment. He decides to help his poor abused ’by his best friend Hwan Kwanghee’ soul. Don’t ask Jongdae how Siwan and Kwanghee are still best friends, that’s why mysteries exist.
“Explain yourself,” Jongdae says to Kwanghee while he tries to take control of two of the puppies - one is black with white dots and the other is grey with white -, it doesn’t work, Kwanghee coos at them and Jongdae stomps his foot to get his attention. “Why do you need my help?”
“I can help,” Dongwoo appears out of nowhere raising a hand and smiling at everybody in the room, who aren’t much, Kwanghee doesn’t ask for a lot of help when he’s working, usually a model or two, the make up artist and the stylist, poor Siwan is bossed around to do everything, from do the lightning to the decoration and any special requests needed for the photoshoots. “Hand me one of them, or two, as much as you want me to.”
“Can you take them all?” Siwan asks, one eye closed while he’s trying to reach down to his legs to untangle the leash.
“Yeah why not.” he says and extends his hands, taking them all from Siwan and sitting on the floor, Kwanghee watching as he still has the same dog in his arms and Jongdae only observes everything that’s happening right now.
“Oh yeah, the explanation,” Kwanghee says, shaking his hand, calling Siwan to come closer and them he gives him the puppy he was carrying, Siwan makes a face at him, but obeys anyway. “I thought about my little Mocca back at home,” he starts with that sugar filled tone he uses when he talks about his own pet dog. “And I started to think did we ever do a shoot with dogs?, so this time I wanted to show the joy of having a pet and that’s why we rented these five babies over here.”
Kwanghee points to Dongwoo who’s still on the floor and, to the surprise of most of them - all of them -, the puppies are all in his lap and if it doesn’t look funny, it looks cute, because all of them look like their energy ended and they need a nap.
“Ohhh look, look,” Kwanghee coos again and Siwan stares amazed, Jongdae is not sure if it’s because of how Dongwoo is handling the dogs pretty well or because of his choice of clothes for today, not that it’s any different from the other ones, every once in a while - everyday - Jongdae feels like burning Dongwoo’s wardrobe. “The puppies are so cute, Siwan!” Kwanghee exclaims jabbing a finger to his friend’s chest. “You’re going to be today’s model and, in another note, I think we could’ve rented only one.”
“Very clever, very very clever Mr. Hwan,” Siwan starts, but pauses. “Hey, why me? I’m your assistant on set, not a model.”
“Now you are a model.” Kwanghee says and points to the dressing room. “Go get changed while I ask Mr. Kim for something.”
Siwan groans and holds a curse from leaving his mouth, he’s got a reputation to hold and he’s not going to maculate it.
“Hey wassup, Jongdae, do you want to model too?” Kwanghee holds a serious expression and Jongdae doesn’t know what he should reply, but he ends up saying maybe next time, today I’ve got things to do, though, he doesn’t really do, which is why Kwanghee tells him that he needs to ask him a favor. “Please, take the dogs out and walk with them until this shoot is over.”
“Are you asking me to do it or telling me to do it?”
“Telling you to do it because this magazine is under your responsibility and if I don’t get done with this shoot, there’ll be a chunk missing for the issue for this month.”
“Sneaky,” Jongdae retaliates but gives in, Kwanghee doesn’t tend to take long, so Jongdae is - hopefully - sure that this won’t take more than half an hour. “Dongwoo, let’s go.”
“Where’s the dog I was holding earlier?” Kwanghee looks around and sights Siwan coming back from the dressing room with his hair up and a wearing a pair of simple jeans with a graphic tee that reads I'm underrated, Kwanghee glares to the stylist - who’s Soojung by the way, she’s a part time stylist and a part time hairstylist and she’s currently grinning wildly as Kwanghee stares at the words on that tee.
“It’s still with me,” Siwan claims from his current position of trying-not-to-let-the-dog-lick-my-makeup-away. “Come get it, I want to be done with my job, I swear…”
Jongdae and Dongwoo leave the lover’s quarrel behind as they walk with the dog’s out of the room, they should walk outside the building, but this is too much of a burden and Jongdae doesn’t want to go out and have people look at him weirdly because 1) they currently have four dogs with them and 2) his assistant is wearing a paint marked dungaree with a purple t-shirt, Jongdae thinks that something about this is not right and that Dongwoo buy his clothes with his eyes closed.
Hopefully the dogs won’t decide to use where they shouldn’t as bathroom. Jongdae’s praying for that.
Dongwoo seems amused or just very very happy, Jongdae looks at him, walking behind and watching as Dongwoo likes the dogs and how they like him back, good thing Dongwoo is here to help, Jongdae is not that good with animals in general.
His phone buzzes on his pocket and he reaches out for them, incoming call from I think I am the boss, he presses the button and brings the phone near to his ear.
“Hey,” Jongdae just listens, he knows Kwanghee has more to say. “Can you come back to the studio? I kind of had an idea and I need all the puppies, sorry for making you waste your time leaving the place.”
Jongdae doesn’t even reply, he hangs up the phone and calls out for Dongwoo, who turns and comes running with the dogs.
“Let’s go.”
Dongwoo follows Jongdae’s quick steps to the end of the corridor, Kwanghee is super lucky that Jongdae is a slow walker and that he has his greatest suit on today so he can’t sweat that much, it’s not cheap to pay for the laundry.
Dongwoo gives the leashes to Kwanghee and stands next to Jongdae, watching as Kwanghee hands them all - again - to Siwan and orders him around.
“Well,” Jongdae says with a light tone, showing how pleased he is that this is done and he doesn’t need to do anything anymore. “Let’s get going, it’s getting late and I think we can leave for our homes.”
We can just forget Kwanghee behind, he’s used to being stuck until late to his office anyway.
“Sure.”
Did Jongdae ever mention how he absolutely hated Dongwoo during the first week but didn’t say or make anything that’d show it up? He knows he holds first impressions a lot, but Dongwoo managed to change his point of view, which is quite something, since it’s hard to change his mind about something and he must add, Dongwoo brings joy to his office, and coming from him, this is a big deal, a really big one and Jongdae can easily say that he’s starting to get concerned about himself.
There’s a soft on his door, Jongdae doesn’t know if it’s Jinah bringing news or work, but he’s quite sure that if it was her, she’d have called, maybe it’s someone who needs help. He gets up and walks up to it, opening the door to face Hongbin.
“Oh hello, is there something you want to tell me or ask?” Jongdae says politely and Hongbin smiles at him.
“Ah, okay,” he says and Jongdae notices that he’s holding a folder, Hongbin extends the hand that’s holding it. “I just had to give this to you. Thank you for your hard work, now I have to go, I’m sorry for the brief interruption.”
Hongbin bows and exits the place, Jongdae shoots a look to Jinah, but she shrugs, showing him that she has no idea what he just gave him.
Dongwoo’s already home or whatever, he’s just not inside the building and Jongdae is still here because he decided to take a look on the contents of the magazine. He heard the pictures from Hongbin’s shoot are already being printed and that soon the chosen ones will be in his hands and he’s confused to why Hongbin came to his office personally to deliver this one folder.
He decides to open it right now, careful fingers trying not to rip the paper and Jongdae is surprised when he pulls out an envelope and a note.
Dear Mr. Kim (can I call you dear and Mr. Kim in the same phrase?),
I’m sorry if what’s inside that envelope looks like a result of some stalking because it is not, at that day I forgot the case of my camera inside the studio, since I always have my camera around my neck, and I had to run back to go get it since I can’t take the train with a professional camera showing around like this, anyway, I ran into you and your assistant in the middle of the set and allow me to say that it looked like the two of you were having lots of fun and I’m sorry if this sounds creepy, but I took two or five pictures, I don’t know what you think about it, I thought you looked like you were in your own photoshoot so I wanted to have a record of it, I’m sending you the picture that looked the best.
I’m sorry and thank you for your attention,
L. Hongbin
Jongdae almost chokes when he’s reading the middle of the note, he doesn’t blame Hongbin, he’s a photographer and Jongdae, as and ex-photographer assistant, can clearly say that they like to keep memories of almost everything - and he’s also not going to blame him because he’s dead curious to see said picture. He rushes to open the envelope and is not surprised to see a very good job done with it.
Dongwoo’s holding one of his hands and he has both eyes closed in a smile, his mouth is curled up and he looks the happiest he has ever been since he graduated college and got his first important job, the picture looks so pretty that he can even disconsider Dongwoo’s horrendous outfit.
It’s funny how he’s smiling at the picture, if it was him one months ago, he’d have ripped it in half and thrown it away, but now he’s putting into consideration framing it and hanging on the wall of his office, life’s weird, but Jongdae is not normal so there’s no point for discussion.
The next day when Jongdae gets to his office, he notices that Dongwoo’s already there, he’d left the picture on top of his desk, he’s absolutely going to frame it and hang it as a memory, he also notices that Dongwoo is staring at his desk and that he looks happy.
“So you saw the photo Hongbin took of us?” Jongdae nears Dongwoo and stands next to him, looking down at his own desk and smiling. “It looks good, right?”
“It does.” Dongwoo replies and takes it in his hands.
“What do you think about hanging it in that wall?” Jongdae points to the space right next to the door and Dongwoo stares at it with starry eyes.
“It’s a great place.” Dongwoo puts the photo back to its previous place and Jongdae looks at him.
“What do you think about getting something to drink at the restaurant on the second floor? I heard their coffee is nice, but I’ve only had lunch there.”
Dongwoo seems surprised by the invitation, but he nods his head eagerly, Jongdae looks as pleased as him.
Time for changes has come and it’s all because of his assistant Dongwoo - Jongdae needs to make sure to get to know him better, maybe he’s found that one person for him, maybe (he hopes he did).
Author's note: I totally did not intend on joining the fest, but when I was travelling through the prompts I could feel this one calling me and how much joy would someone who’s Dongwoo biased feel while writing about such sweetheart along with Jongdae? I can’t even describe it, all I have to say is thank you for the amazing prompt and I do hope that this is at least a little of what you had in mind. Shout out for all the cameos and shout out to A for being my cheerleader♡
Title: Coloring (Jongdae’s life)
Pairing: Chen/Dongwoo; ninja!Hongbin/Hyuk and ninja!Kwanghee/Siwan
Rating: PG
Word count: 6985 words
Summary: Sunshine assistant, Jang Dongwoo, at your services.
It took Jongdae, at least, six years to finally get to where he is right now. From an assistant photographer to the actual photographer, to a fashion critique at a not-that-known magazine to - finally - editor assistant and then, chief editor of one of the most successful and popular magazines in the whole country, Vogue Korea.
And that’s why he takes everything seriously, from the beginning until the very end, just like his whole career, he wants to make the magazine as successful as possible. So far his efforts are paying off pretty well.
"Sir, we're still trying to find you a new assistant, it has been a little hard since you fired Byunghee at the beginning of this week, he was the best so far and it seemed like you thought the same, sir." Jongdae's secretary, Jinah, says from the door. Jongdae was just a little distracted with the stack of papers right in front of him, this week's deal with a new 'batch' of models - and also Lacoste's new limited collection - is going to be closed and it's just now that Jongdae notices the cup of americano missing at his right side.
He pinches the bridge of his nose and drops his pen, Jinah, who's still standing at the door flinches and apologizes, telling Jongdae that she'll soon be back with his usual drink.
He lets out a sigh, all this drama just because Byunghee dropped a whole cup of coffee on Jongdae's favorite sweater and, if that wasn't enough, it also hit his new pair of jeans and the papers all over his table.
By thinking about it again, Jongdae wants to tear apart all these papers lying on his table - including Jung Byunghee, damn it. It wasn't just because, it was well deserved and if it happens again, Jongdae swears that he'll make sure that the culprit will be unemployed for a really long time.
He's so busy thinking about this future person's misery that he doesn't even notice Jinah knocking and entering his office, carefully putting that cup of americano far from his important papers, but close enough for his arm to reach it when extended.
Im Jinah is possibly the best secretary he could've asked for, only if he could say the same about his assistants.
Since the beginning he'd been unlucky.
First Nam Woohyun, who was capable of getting distracted by his own reflex and would give him the wrong schedules of the photograph sessions and meetings.
Then Bang Minsoo, who was too good looking to just be an assistant, but too lazy to be anything, first week and he'd already messed up all of his belongings, from papers to even toothpaste, everything was a mess and he couldn't find a single thing.
After him, it all went downhill.
Lee Jaehwan, who was too cheerful early in the morning; Jung Taekwoon, whose voice was too soft and low - but those aren't real problems, it was just Jongdae being picky and annoyed at everything.
The one before Byunghee, Yoo Changhyun, was too clumsy, it was the kid's first job and Jongdae now is judging who decided to hire him.
It lasted a week.
But Jung Byunghee had the assistant position for a little more than three months, that's the longest someone lasted by Jongdae's side.
Jongdae releases a restless sigh, there's still a load of work for him to do today, not counting the ones mentioned before, the most important so far is that the famous rookie photographer, Lee Hongbin, scheduled an interview to fill one of the vacant positions to be part of the official photographers team for Vogue Korea and Jongdae is the one in charge of it, he'd seen Hongbin's works before, he could recruit him according to what he wants, the interview is just a formality, but he can't show favoritism.
Not in this world, when someone can jump out of nowhere and steal his current position. This job is too precious for Jongdae, he can't risk losing it.
But whatever, right now, what really matters is getting rid of everything on top of his desk. Jongdae takes a sip of his americano and gets his pen ready.
First task of the day is about to be done.
When lunch time nears, Jinah interrupts Jongdae's workings, those unwelcomed papers are long gone and his secretary is here to remind him that he needs to go get something to eat before the said important interview.
"Thank you." Jongdae says and Jinah leaves the office with her usual soft smile, he sighs, putting the magazine down. Different from what most people would think, Jongdae is not taking a break or something, because even though he checks every single detail before the magazine is published, he thinks that there will always be a point where he can make it better.
Rubbing his tired eyes - due to him staring at the same page for the past fifteen minutes-, Jongdae pushes his armchair and gets up, nearing the hanger a few centimeters away from the door and putting his red coat on.
He passes through the half opened door and closes it, walking by Jinah's desk all the way to the elevator at the end of the hall, waiting for it to arrive, so he can go down to the restaurant at the second floor.
The ring announces the arrival of the elevator, opening its doors and Jongdae steps in, pressing the button and hoping he'll be able to eat soon.
"Hello, chief editor, Jongdae. Fancy meeting you here." it's Chanhee, one of the columnists, Chanhee usually talks about the popular tendencies, but, right now, in Jongdae's point of view, he thinks that whatever is this that Chanhee is wearing, it needs to be set on fire and it does not look like something that someone who knows a single thing about fashion would dare wear, ever.
He doesn't reply Chanhee with words, but with a bow of his head, Jongdae can not trust his tongue if he opens his mouth to speak. The reason for Jongdae's internal uprising is that Chanhee is wearing the most ridiculous jacket he's ever seen, it's silver with purple stripes and, if it couldn't get worse, Chanhee is also wearing a green scarf around his neck and his jeans are yellow.
Jongdae darts out of the elevator without uttering a single word when it shows that the second floor is already here, better be quiet and just pretend it didn't look horrendous - even though it did.
He walks next to the glass walls, showing the restaurant that is yet to get packed, right now, most employees are working, since their lunch break starts in a few minutes.
Jongdae passes through the entrance and takes a seat next to the window, looking outside, still thinking about earlier, why are all of my assistants so far so terrible?
"What would you like today, sir?" the waiter asks him with a small smile.
"Just that Ceasar Salad I always get and a cup of lemonade." Jongdae pushes the menu the waiter gave him away without even opening it, still staring outside like it’s the best thing he could be looking at - which is true.
If Jongdae could be very honest, he’s pretty much alone in this industry - though his secretary is amazing, he can’t just count on her for everything.
Jongdae dreams of the day something like this will happen, him, finding someone to be by his side, maybe that’s why most people who work here with important positions are 99,9999% single.
((But Jongdae is 100% sure Jinah is dating Park Chanyeol, photographer assistant of one of their best photographers, Shim Changmin.))
His salad arrives quickly, Jongdae feels ridiculously full at the end of his meal, finishing his drink and setting a few bills on the table, he knows the price by head, he always orders the same thing every single day.
The waiter can’t even reach the table to tell him goodbye when Jongdae is already out of the door, swinging his arms from side to side, the only time he can be a little less uptight is after his lunch when most workers are busy and he’s the only one left on his floor - reason to why he’s pretty happy right now.
Before reaching the elevator, he checks the clock, a little past noon, he has around twenty five minutes before that interview, he can stop by his office, rest and then head to the room when it’ll be happening, one floor below his own office.
The ride upwards is quick, even quicker compared to when he went to the restaurant, taking a deep breath and closing his eyes, why is working so damn stressful? But he heard Lee Hongbin is not someone to give trouble, so that’s one less worry, all he needs is someone to take the assistant position.
He walks out of the elevator all the way to the end of the corridor, opening the door and not seeing Jinah there - it’s also her lunch break after all -, but instead, he sees too much pink and lemon coloured pants with a neon orange shirt, a sky blue jacket and, if that wasn’t enough, along with a fluffy backpack. Jongdae stops on his tracks, is this some carnival parade photoshoot or………
“Hello?” Jongdae attempts to start conversation to at least know who’s the person and why this person is here. “Are you lost or something?”
The person, Jongdae notices, is a male and the only thing he can notice is that he has really weird taste in clothes and everything else, his hair is pink, Jongdae first paid attention to the hair but after looking at him for a little more than ten seconds, you get totally distracted by his clothes and the way he’s smiling, too bright for such a serious establishment.
“Are you Kim Jongdae?” the male asks with a cheerful voice and Jongdae cringes when he nears him, he feels like he’d get blind by all those colours dancing in front of his eyes right now.
It surprises him a little to notice that they’re almost the same height - but coughs Jongdae is wearing insolescoughs.
“Are you? Are you? I’m Jang Dongwoo by the way, I think I applied for a job here a few weeks ago and someone called me asking if I was still unemployed, though, I was helping my mom out at her restaurant, I think it’s okay, right? So that person who called said I got a position that was currently empty.”
“Assistant?” Jongdae asks bored, but still totally affected with what’s in front of him, talking way too much and making little sense, he almost misses the excited nod of his new assistant's head, Dongwoo. “Can you start working right away?”
“That’s why I’m here.” he replies with another smile, wider as if that was possible to even happen.
Jongdae sighs, this will do.
“What do I have to do?” Dongwoo asks with hopeful eyes and Jongdae motions with his hands for Dongwoo to follow him into his office.
Lots of things.
Jongdae took a little less than half an hour to explain what Dongwoo needed to do - right on time - and now he’s running to where he’s supposed to go with the contract papers in hands, the interview room.
At the section with the chairs for waiting he finds two persons waiting, one is, obviously, Lee Hongbin and the other is hard to focus from the place he is right now, but Jongdae is quite sure that he knows that idiot.
“Hwan Kwanghee, go back to your work, as far as I know you have a photoshoot with Lee Sungjong to take care of today, stop harassing everybody who’s near you.” Jongdae says when he’s less than three meters away from both man.
“Wow boss, okay, I’m going, I’m going,” Kwanghee rolls his eyes and waves his hands towards Jongdae, turning back to Hongbin and smiling. “So, are you auditioning to be a model?”
“You’re so out of yourself right now,” Jongdae gives Kwanghee a push, trying to force him to just leave without uttering more words, he still has work to finish, but he keeps on fooling around the floors, typical. “Siwan is going to kill you if you make him wait while holding the lighting again.”
“See you all later, hopefully.” Kwanghee takes large steps towards the elevator and, them, to the usual studio he uses on the seventh floor.
“Let’s get into the room,” Jongdae opens the door and waits for Hongbin to get up from his current seat. “This is going to be interesting, ever since I got the position, this is the first time that I’ll be evaluating and hiring someone, so what did you bring with you?”
Hongbin pats the briefcase under his arm and smiles nervously.
It doesn’t take much time, Jongdae is soon back to his floor, happily holding those same contract papers with him, signed. He mentally claps his hands for himself, another great deal, just like the collab with Etude House.
“Hello, sir,” Jinah greets him when he sets foot inside the room. “I see that you’re in a good mood, I also noticed that your new assistant is already here, is he okay?”
“Yes, I think so, as first impression, aside from you know,” Jongdae moves his hands up and down his body and laughs. “He seems to learn pretty quickly.”
“I’m glad, I went to check up on him and he was done with pretty much everything, so I sent him home.” Jinah says and looks away, Jongdae assumes that she’s worried that he’ll scold her, but today he’s in a great mood, which is just a little rare, so he lets it pass with a few taps on her desk and a small grin.
“Great, thanks!” Jongdae turns his back to her and enters his office, closing the door, everything looks pretty much okay, the stack of papers he finished in the morning that were lying at that small table near the door are gone for real, sent for the ones in charge of organizing the contents of the magazine, Jongdae went through all the articles, from makeup to fashion, from an article about Lee Hyunwoo’s new house to a discussion about the outfits Jung Eunji wore on her drama Trot Lovers.
Dongwoo did a good job today, Jongdae hopes he’ll do the same next week, today is Friday already, which means that once the clock hits six in the afternoon, he’s going to close his office, buy expensive vodka on his way home and run to catch the broadcast of One Love that starts one hour and a half after he leaves.
What a great way to spend his Friday nights - all of his nights, actually.
Jongdae notices that ever since Dongwoo started working for him, they settled a routine, everything is in place, everything is on time and Dongwoo is quick. He doesn’t have a single thing to complain which is quite something to say coming from him.
When he arrives, Dongwoo is already there, doing his daily tasks, finishing them earlier and leaving earlier, it’s funny because Jongdae’s last assistants were so slow that it looked that they slept during their shifts.
It’s good because Jongdae is not a fan of making conversation while he’s at work, besides, he doesn’t do it when he’s not at work as well, so it’s okay for him either way, everybody ends up happy, even Jinah.
Jongdae also notices that his humor is a lot better than it used to be, if it’s not for him greeting good morning to every single person he meets on his way to this office, it’s him saying goodbye when he’s leaving. Maybe it’s him knowing that everything is on place that gets him this happy, it’s been a while since things had been like this.
All the recent photoshoots have been going nicely, Kwanghee is not causing much trouble and Hongbin is still making the preparations for his first one, Jongdae should consider being friends with him, like, for real. But if Hongbin is nice and friendly, so is Dongwoo, who’s also very tidy with everything he does, he’s all smiles and laughs, brightening up the office - says Jinah especially, she spends most of her time sat behind a desk and apparently Dongwoo makes her company and chat with her once he’s done, right before leaving the building.
For the first in such a long time since he has been working here, Jongdae can sincerely say that he’s happy with the current environment - if you take aside Kwanghee’s antics and Siwan’s complaints.
But did Jongdae ever mention to someone one of his old dreams before he became the chief editor? He doesn't think he did and he doesn’t think he will - because hearing let’s be real, you’re not tall enough to be a model from a famous company is not the greatest thing, so he gave up, why keep trying when he knew that he’d hear the same thing all the damn time?
It’s true, Jongdae once wanted to be a model, but he can’t complain about the place he’s right now, he loves it and it makes up for everything that he couldn’t achieve.
It’s not something he does all the time, but Jongdae likes to watch as the new photographer works at least once, so today is the day Hongbin has work to do with Han Sanghyuk, one of the youngest at the high top professional modelling in the city, who’s going to wear some pretty and expensive clothes that their stylist, Kim Kibum, chose, the man has a really good hand and view for fashion, as expected.
Jongdae makes his way, happier than the usual, to the set for the photoshoot, he greets every person he sights and then he proceeds to find Hongbin, who’s adjusting his camera, fixing the position of the lighting and telling Sanghyuk a few things while the hairstylist tries to do her job - not everything at the same time though, Hongbin’s not superman or anything -, but Soojung doesn’t look really amused by how Sanghyuk keeps on nodding his head to Hongbin’s words while she’s trying to work with his hair, her face shows it clearly.
“Hello,” Jongdae greets both and Sanghyuk bows at him, Soojung frowns and gives up, walking away and back to the changing room where she can gossip with her friend Jihyun, Hongbin smiles at Jongdae while playing with the strap of the camera he currently has in hands. “Don’t mind my presence here, I came to watch Hongbin’s first job here for the magazine.”
Hongbin rubs one of his arms and looks at Sanghyuk, like he’s worried and Jongdae notices it, he knows that most of the time he looks like someone who’s going to make you go down with his words because he has the power, but he hopes he didn’t pass this impression on Hongbin because he looks like someone who’d get truthfully afraid to talk to him if something like that makes bugs his subconscious.
Jongdae watches as Dongwoo comes running towards him from the front door, a clipboard under his arm and he does as Jongdae did before, greeting everybody on his way until he’s standing next to him and in front of Hongbin and Sanghyuk.
“Hello.” he says and all the three of them say hello back, Dongwoo smiles for a few more seconds at them before he turns to Jongdae. “You forgot your papers on top of your desk, you mentioned that you’d need them and I thought that I, as your assistant, should bring those to you.”
Dongwoo waves the clipboard in front of his face and Jongdae reaches out at it, flipping through the pages filled with nothing, they’re brand new paper sheets and them Jongdae remembers why he’d bring these with him, he planned on making annotations about what exactly he’ assume that Hongbin would be good at, so he'd make the job easier for him and Hongbin in the near future.
Jongdae thanks Dongwoo when he’s done with staring at the blank pages. “Don’t worry about me,” he turns to Hongbin and Sanghyuk. “I’ll just watch, you don’t need to try to impress me or anything, really, I’m just watching, consider me as a staff member.”
Hongbin nods slowly, like he’s calculating what he has to say from now on and Jongdae frowns, that’s not what he planned.
“Nothing will happen,” Jongdae repeats his assurance words, Hongbin looks at him, eyes wide and Sanghyuk bids goodbye, heading to the middle of the set because the stylist is calling him to do one last check up at his outfit. “I hope I didn’t scare you, I swear I’m a good person.”
Hongbin loosens up and laughs, still a little apprehensive, but Jongdae clasps a hand on his shoulder with a friendly smile and a few staff look at him weirdly.
“Don’t mind the weird stares from the people around, they’re just not used to me smiling like this,” his whispers while trying not to laugh and cause someone like Changmin to trip for stopping to stare at him while he’s passing by, Jongdae looks around and sees Dongwoo distracted with the coffee machine a few meters away from them. “It’s just that this is the first time ever that my assistant does things properly and I don’t get stressed over anything he would do wrong for the whole day and week.”
Hongbin doesn’t look that convinced, but he nods because this story is quite plausible and it does look like the workers are startled or horrified.
“Can I stay too?” Dongwoo pops in and Jongdae thinks that why not? He had been doing a really great job and if he wants to stay, as long as he doesn’t ruin anything, that’s okay, so he nods and Dongwoo gets the message.
“So,” Jongdae speaks to Hongbin who’s currently observing as Sanghyuk walks around the set, he looks at the boy too and tries to unveil what’s the concept for this section of the magazine, but he can’t think of anything because Sanghyuk is wearing a dark blue collared loose shirt along with jeans and a pair of sneakers and the set is not of help as well because it just looks like an empty room. “What’s exactly this shoot about?”
“Oh,” Hongbin releases the strap and lets the camera hang around his neck, rubbing his hands against each other and turning from the set to Jongdae and again to the set. “You see that the lights up there are off,” he points to the ceiling where three spotlights were supposed to be shining, but instead, he sees dozen of light bulbs there, it looks like someone spent a good amount of time working in that because Jongdae doesn’t remember anyone installing it up there. “So the dark ceiling is supposed to be the sky and those are the stars,” he explains and someone turns the light for those on, Jongdae watches at it lights up the ceiling weakly, enough to make it look like the night sky. “And the set down here is supposed to be some kind of rooftop, it can be anything, really, but I wanted to fit something in the theme dancing under the stars and this was the result, I’m sorry it took me a while to actually do my first shoot since you hired me, but I kind of had a hard time putting those light bulbs there and it took longer than I intended to.”
Jongdae is still staring at everything, from the ceiling to the set to Hongbin and then Sanghyuk who’s blowing air at his fringe. He gives Hongbin a thumbs up because there isn’t really something he can say to him aside from good job, but he’s going to save that for when this is done.
Hongbin looks around shyly, like he’s trying to get everyone’s attention, but he doesn’t want to scream or be loud. Jongdae claps his hands and everybody look at him, Dongwoo runs over to where he is - he went away to check the coffee machine again - and stands by his side.
“Work!” is the only thing Jongdae says and motions for Dongwoo to follow him, nearing the set a little more and standing a few meters away from the working photographer.
Jongdae observes everything along with Dongwoo, a little more intently than his assistant, now he knows why Sanghyuk is already a famous model at the age of nineteen and why Hongbin is also a famous photographer at the age of twenty one, both are dazzling when they’re working, immersed on what they like, Sanghyuk in front of the camera and Hongbin behind one, Jongdae wished he had the passion to keep going with all the modelling he wanted to do when he was earlier, but he backed away, maybe he didn’t want it that much after all.
“-are you listening to me?” Dongwoo asks waving a hand in front of Jongdae’s face, Jongdae blinks and looks at Dongwoo, he got too distracted watching the photoshoot roll that he didn’t notice that Dongwoo was talking to him.
“I’m sorry.” Jongdae replies while trying to hold his embarrassment for being caught almost dozing off added to him only paying attention to what’s in front of him and not to his surroundings.
“It’s okay, I just asked you why do you look at them so intently like you wished you were the one there,” Dongwoo catches Jongdae off guard, is it that obvious? “Because, I mean, I get that at the beginning it was very interesting, but they’re kind of done and you’re still staring at it like you were when it all started.”
“Why are you asking me this?” Jongdae looks away and takes notice that indeed, Hongbin is done and Sanghyuk is already off the set and probably changing clothes and that he forgot to take notes.
“I don’t know,” Dongwoo says with honesty. “It looked like it was important for you.”
“Doesn’t matter.” Jongdae kills the talk and starts to walk towards Hongbin to greet him with the good job he planned to earlier. Dongwoo follows his lead.
After everybody leaves this room, only Jongdae and Dongwoo are left, Jongdae is quite sure all the work he had to finish today is done and so is Dongwoo’s, when he turns to his assistant to dismiss his for the day, he’s met by Dongwoo walking towards the middle of the set.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Jongdae hisses, but all that Dongwoo does is open his arms and spin under the light bulbs that are turned off. “Let’s go down to the office.”
But Dongwoo doesn’t stop his previous actions and Jongdae has to go there himself to make him stop his antics and just do what he says, which is in vain, because Dongwoo stops spinning, but holds his arm with a loose grip.
“Have you ever danced or thought about it and never did?”
“Huh?” Jongdae shakes his head in annoyance at him.
“You know, dancing under the stars.” Dongwoo says excited, eyeing their surroundings and Jongdae starts to question his assistant’s sanity.
“I don’t like to dance.” Jongdae declines Dongwoo’s question and shakes his arm off of his hold, preparing himself to run to his office and then leave, today he’s tired and he doesn’t even know why.
“No, wait,” Dongwoo says and Jongdae stops on his tracks, heaving a sigh and knowing that he’ll probably regret this later, but he still walks back to Dongwoo’s side. “Do you want to dance under the stars?”
Jongdae snorts and Dongwoo’s expression stays still, the same smile is there and without saying anything he presses that same button Hongbin’s staff pressed earlier and the dim light is on. Dongwoo extends a hand and, surprisingly, Jongdae catches himself reaching out and taking it, Dongwoo’s smile grows wider and he pulls Jongdae closer, spinning like before, but a little slower, Jongdae almost gets tangled with his own legs and he tries to not look like he has two left feet for dancing.
Dongwoo’s guiding his every steps and Jongdae didn’t imagine him in a situation like this, much less enjoying it, but maybe it’s just Dongwoo’s happiness rubbing on him.
During the next week, Jongdae is called to watch Kwanghee take care of his photoshoot, maybe it was Siwan asking him to do it because he couldn’t stand being on the same room as the photographer, along with the staff and models, but then, he wouldn’t be alone with him, but speaking of Kwanghee, everything is possible.
But in the end, Jongdae understands why he was called.
When he pushes the door to the studio open, he sees five puppies in collars and Siwan trying to get them to stop running in circles around him, just like in the movies, he’s trapped and all that Kwanghee is doing is laugh at his face. Jongdae clicks his tongue and closes the door so there will be no puppies running around the building.
“Finally,” Siwans whispers in relief and Kwanghee turns his laughing figure towards Jongdae, he crouches and takes the white puppy in his arms, running a hand through its fur and avoiding to be licked in the face. “Can you lend me a hand?”
Jongdae looks at Siwan who looks like he could die at any moment. He decides to help his poor abused ’by his best friend Hwan Kwanghee’ soul. Don’t ask Jongdae how Siwan and Kwanghee are still best friends, that’s why mysteries exist.
“Explain yourself,” Jongdae says to Kwanghee while he tries to take control of two of the puppies - one is black with white dots and the other is grey with white -, it doesn’t work, Kwanghee coos at them and Jongdae stomps his foot to get his attention. “Why do you need my help?”
“I can help,” Dongwoo appears out of nowhere raising a hand and smiling at everybody in the room, who aren’t much, Kwanghee doesn’t ask for a lot of help when he’s working, usually a model or two, the make up artist and the stylist, poor Siwan is bossed around to do everything, from do the lightning to the decoration and any special requests needed for the photoshoots. “Hand me one of them, or two, as much as you want me to.”
“Can you take them all?” Siwan asks, one eye closed while he’s trying to reach down to his legs to untangle the leash.
“Yeah why not.” he says and extends his hands, taking them all from Siwan and sitting on the floor, Kwanghee watching as he still has the same dog in his arms and Jongdae only observes everything that’s happening right now.
“Oh yeah, the explanation,” Kwanghee says, shaking his hand, calling Siwan to come closer and them he gives him the puppy he was carrying, Siwan makes a face at him, but obeys anyway. “I thought about my little Mocca back at home,” he starts with that sugar filled tone he uses when he talks about his own pet dog. “And I started to think did we ever do a shoot with dogs?, so this time I wanted to show the joy of having a pet and that’s why we rented these five babies over here.”
Kwanghee points to Dongwoo who’s still on the floor and, to the surprise of most of them - all of them -, the puppies are all in his lap and if it doesn’t look funny, it looks cute, because all of them look like their energy ended and they need a nap.
“Ohhh look, look,” Kwanghee coos again and Siwan stares amazed, Jongdae is not sure if it’s because of how Dongwoo is handling the dogs pretty well or because of his choice of clothes for today, not that it’s any different from the other ones, every once in a while - everyday - Jongdae feels like burning Dongwoo’s wardrobe. “The puppies are so cute, Siwan!” Kwanghee exclaims jabbing a finger to his friend’s chest. “You’re going to be today’s model and, in another note, I think we could’ve rented only one.”
“Very clever, very very clever Mr. Hwan,” Siwan starts, but pauses. “Hey, why me? I’m your assistant on set, not a model.”
“Now you are a model.” Kwanghee says and points to the dressing room. “Go get changed while I ask Mr. Kim for something.”
Siwan groans and holds a curse from leaving his mouth, he’s got a reputation to hold and he’s not going to maculate it.
“Hey wassup, Jongdae, do you want to model too?” Kwanghee holds a serious expression and Jongdae doesn’t know what he should reply, but he ends up saying maybe next time, today I’ve got things to do, though, he doesn’t really do, which is why Kwanghee tells him that he needs to ask him a favor. “Please, take the dogs out and walk with them until this shoot is over.”
“Are you asking me to do it or telling me to do it?”
“Telling you to do it because this magazine is under your responsibility and if I don’t get done with this shoot, there’ll be a chunk missing for the issue for this month.”
“Sneaky,” Jongdae retaliates but gives in, Kwanghee doesn’t tend to take long, so Jongdae is - hopefully - sure that this won’t take more than half an hour. “Dongwoo, let’s go.”
“Where’s the dog I was holding earlier?” Kwanghee looks around and sights Siwan coming back from the dressing room with his hair up and a wearing a pair of simple jeans with a graphic tee that reads I'm underrated, Kwanghee glares to the stylist - who’s Soojung by the way, she’s a part time stylist and a part time hairstylist and she’s currently grinning wildly as Kwanghee stares at the words on that tee.
“It’s still with me,” Siwan claims from his current position of trying-not-to-let-the-dog-lick-my-makeup-away. “Come get it, I want to be done with my job, I swear…”
Jongdae and Dongwoo leave the lover’s quarrel behind as they walk with the dog’s out of the room, they should walk outside the building, but this is too much of a burden and Jongdae doesn’t want to go out and have people look at him weirdly because 1) they currently have four dogs with them and 2) his assistant is wearing a paint marked dungaree with a purple t-shirt, Jongdae thinks that something about this is not right and that Dongwoo buy his clothes with his eyes closed.
Hopefully the dogs won’t decide to use where they shouldn’t as bathroom. Jongdae’s praying for that.
Dongwoo seems amused or just very very happy, Jongdae looks at him, walking behind and watching as Dongwoo likes the dogs and how they like him back, good thing Dongwoo is here to help, Jongdae is not that good with animals in general.
His phone buzzes on his pocket and he reaches out for them, incoming call from I think I am the boss, he presses the button and brings the phone near to his ear.
“Hey,” Jongdae just listens, he knows Kwanghee has more to say. “Can you come back to the studio? I kind of had an idea and I need all the puppies, sorry for making you waste your time leaving the place.”
Jongdae doesn’t even reply, he hangs up the phone and calls out for Dongwoo, who turns and comes running with the dogs.
“Let’s go.”
Dongwoo follows Jongdae’s quick steps to the end of the corridor, Kwanghee is super lucky that Jongdae is a slow walker and that he has his greatest suit on today so he can’t sweat that much, it’s not cheap to pay for the laundry.
Dongwoo gives the leashes to Kwanghee and stands next to Jongdae, watching as Kwanghee hands them all - again - to Siwan and orders him around.
“Well,” Jongdae says with a light tone, showing how pleased he is that this is done and he doesn’t need to do anything anymore. “Let’s get going, it’s getting late and I think we can leave for our homes.”
We can just forget Kwanghee behind, he’s used to being stuck until late to his office anyway.
“Sure.”
Did Jongdae ever mention how he absolutely hated Dongwoo during the first week but didn’t say or make anything that’d show it up? He knows he holds first impressions a lot, but Dongwoo managed to change his point of view, which is quite something, since it’s hard to change his mind about something and he must add, Dongwoo brings joy to his office, and coming from him, this is a big deal, a really big one and Jongdae can easily say that he’s starting to get concerned about himself.
There’s a soft on his door, Jongdae doesn’t know if it’s Jinah bringing news or work, but he’s quite sure that if it was her, she’d have called, maybe it’s someone who needs help. He gets up and walks up to it, opening the door to face Hongbin.
“Oh hello, is there something you want to tell me or ask?” Jongdae says politely and Hongbin smiles at him.
“Ah, okay,” he says and Jongdae notices that he’s holding a folder, Hongbin extends the hand that’s holding it. “I just had to give this to you. Thank you for your hard work, now I have to go, I’m sorry for the brief interruption.”
Hongbin bows and exits the place, Jongdae shoots a look to Jinah, but she shrugs, showing him that she has no idea what he just gave him.
Dongwoo’s already home or whatever, he’s just not inside the building and Jongdae is still here because he decided to take a look on the contents of the magazine. He heard the pictures from Hongbin’s shoot are already being printed and that soon the chosen ones will be in his hands and he’s confused to why Hongbin came to his office personally to deliver this one folder.
He decides to open it right now, careful fingers trying not to rip the paper and Jongdae is surprised when he pulls out an envelope and a note.
Dear Mr. Kim (can I call you dear and Mr. Kim in the same phrase?),
I’m sorry if what’s inside that envelope looks like a result of some stalking because it is not, at that day I forgot the case of my camera inside the studio, since I always have my camera around my neck, and I had to run back to go get it since I can’t take the train with a professional camera showing around like this, anyway, I ran into you and your assistant in the middle of the set and allow me to say that it looked like the two of you were having lots of fun and I’m sorry if this sounds creepy, but I took two or five pictures, I don’t know what you think about it, I thought you looked like you were in your own photoshoot so I wanted to have a record of it, I’m sending you the picture that looked the best.
I’m sorry and thank you for your attention,
L. Hongbin
Jongdae almost chokes when he’s reading the middle of the note, he doesn’t blame Hongbin, he’s a photographer and Jongdae, as and ex-photographer assistant, can clearly say that they like to keep memories of almost everything - and he’s also not going to blame him because he’s dead curious to see said picture. He rushes to open the envelope and is not surprised to see a very good job done with it.
Dongwoo’s holding one of his hands and he has both eyes closed in a smile, his mouth is curled up and he looks the happiest he has ever been since he graduated college and got his first important job, the picture looks so pretty that he can even disconsider Dongwoo’s horrendous outfit.
It’s funny how he’s smiling at the picture, if it was him one months ago, he’d have ripped it in half and thrown it away, but now he’s putting into consideration framing it and hanging on the wall of his office, life’s weird, but Jongdae is not normal so there’s no point for discussion.
The next day when Jongdae gets to his office, he notices that Dongwoo’s already there, he’d left the picture on top of his desk, he’s absolutely going to frame it and hang it as a memory, he also notices that Dongwoo is staring at his desk and that he looks happy.
“So you saw the photo Hongbin took of us?” Jongdae nears Dongwoo and stands next to him, looking down at his own desk and smiling. “It looks good, right?”
“It does.” Dongwoo replies and takes it in his hands.
“What do you think about hanging it in that wall?” Jongdae points to the space right next to the door and Dongwoo stares at it with starry eyes.
“It’s a great place.” Dongwoo puts the photo back to its previous place and Jongdae looks at him.
“What do you think about getting something to drink at the restaurant on the second floor? I heard their coffee is nice, but I’ve only had lunch there.”
Dongwoo seems surprised by the invitation, but he nods his head eagerly, Jongdae looks as pleased as him.
Time for changes has come and it’s all because of his assistant Dongwoo - Jongdae needs to make sure to get to know him better, maybe he’s found that one person for him, maybe (he hopes he did).
Author's note: I totally did not intend on joining the fest, but when I was travelling through the prompts I could feel this one calling me and how much joy would someone who’s Dongwoo biased feel while writing about such sweetheart along with Jongdae? I can’t even describe it, all I have to say is thank you for the amazing prompt and I do hope that this is at least a little of what you had in mind. Shout out for all the cameos and shout out to A for being my cheerleader♡