Business Partners | A Novel ❖

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Seonghwa's jaw dropped as he saw Kim Hongjoong's name pop up on the itinerary for their lunch that day.

His heart thudded with nerves.

He hadn't seen Hongjoong since their surprise meeting that had been cut short thanks to his poor behavioural etiquette, and had hoped he wouldn't have to see him again.

But alas, as he stared at the blocked off section on his calendar shared with his boss, the name didn't magically change, and Seonghwa continued to feel sick.

Ding~

A message popped up on the bottom corner of his computer screen, sent from his boss.

Microsoft Teams: CEO KANG
Come to my office
Bring a trolley

Seonghwa frowned, and the initial awkward emotion that had risen within him disappeared the moment he saw the second message.

A trolley? Why?

Sighing, he stood up and went to the secretary's desk to get the trolley, before taking a deep breath and approaching his boss' office. He hadn't set foot inside since their last encounter at his desk, and Seonghwa had not-so-secretly hoped that he would never have to ever again.

But he'd known the time would come when he would have to suck it up and face his poor decisions, and evidently, today was that day.

Knocking, he heard a 'Yes,' called from inside, leaving Seonghwa to take a deep breath and push open the doors.

And suddenly, he was met with chaos.

Having had his nose in his work all morning, Seonghwa hadn't realised just how many people had been coming and leaving Yeosang's office.

And by god, the place looked like a pig sty.

With stacks of paper higher than the height of a small child, and three secretaries running around helping Mr. Kang to organise papers into some kind of categorical format, as Seonghwa walked in with the trolley, no one looked up, not even his boss.

'The piles in the middle of the room haven't been sorted through yet, and the stacks in this corner are going to level nine finance,' Mr. Kang said, pointing behind him as he continued looking through documents in front of him.

'Also, those along the wall are for archiving, on the coffee table are for the analysis team on this floor, the ones on the left side of my desk are for you to go over, and if I catch you touching the ones on the right side of my desk, I will cut off your left arm.'

Seonghwa choked. Especially since he couldn't see a clear divide between the two halves of his desk.

'Yes Boss,' he stuttered, wondering where in the hell he was supposed to start.

Deciding to begin with the ones along the wall that could go to the teams on their level, he quickly set to work, not particularly looking for a lecture on wasting time.

'I need my office cleared entirely in thirty minutes for my meeting, so you better fly.'

Seonghwa gulped.

The pressure was on.

~~~

Much to Seonghwa's relief, there were more people attending the business lunch than just himself, his boss and Kim Hongjoong.

With three others - Hongjoong's colleague, and two other representatives for another company altogether, it was relatively difficult for Seonghwa to detect even a smidgen of the outgoing character he had seen Hongjoong with on the night they had met.