Night Garden [K TH 21+]

24

The only thing keeping Taehyung from quitting his job was the certainty of being homeless. He remembered every single stupid fucking thing he did while he was on his steroid high. He'd acted like a fool, in front of his boss. He had felt so alive and now he was going to die of embarrassment around her. He was tired and irritable and everything was wrong. It was a steroid crash, according to his boss's physician, and happened occasionally. Of course, Taehyung had yet another medication reaction on the severe end of the spectrum. Fan-fucking-tastic.

He was currently about to lose his shit. His boss had him posed as a tree while they mapped out the plantings in the walled garden.

"Move to the right about two feet. Mm... go back just a little." She was torturing him.

"Today is Monday. Are you sure it's not my day off?" He knew it was last week.

"I'm pretty sure. Even if it is, we've got to get this done today, so the order for the plants can be placed." Yung Mi knew the gardener didn't feel great, but they couldn't afford any more delays if they were going to get the plants in the ground before it got too cold for their roots to settle. "It feels like we only work about half the time, because of our schedules or the weather. It would make more sense if your day off was on Wednesdays, when I'm gone."

"That would ruin my long weekends," Taehyung grumbled.

"You work on most weekends anyway. I think we should change it."

That pissed him off. "I'll change it to Wednesday if I get every week off. No more twice a month."

Yung Mi narrowed her eyes at him. It wasn't a bad deal, no worse than what they had now, in terms of productive work hours. She didn't want to look too eager, so she pretended to ponder it a bit more before she agreed. "If I say 'yes' and feed you lunch, will you quit pouting?"

"I'm. Not. Pouting." Taehyung growled.

"It's a cute pout," Yung Mi teased, "but nowhere near as cute as your old man pajamas."

"Tease me again and I'll quit." Taehyung crossed his arms over his chest.

"OK, fine," the widow said, holding her hands up in surrender, trying and failing to hide her smile. "Would you be happier if you could go jump on the bed?"

"This is an abusive workplace environment," Taehyung scowled at his boss, "and karma is a little bitch."

"And I know someone else that's being a little bitch."

Taehyung gasped. "You ..."

"Oh I did." Yung Mi gave a wry chuckle."I'll give you four days to be a little grumpy," she gave him a tiny pout, "since it's my fault you endured four days of itchy suffering."

Taehyung thought it wasn't as much fun being mad at her when she gave him permission to be mad. She was waiting for his answer, brows raised in question, her lips curved in a small, hopeful smile. He rolled his eyes, but the widow saw the hint of a smile when he tucked his head.