Zero by One: Take Me Home

12. A Not-so-fateful Encounter

┏━━━━━༻❁༺━━━━━┓

CHAPTER 12
Doom's Arc
EP: TWO

┗━━━━━༻❁༺━━━━━┛

　

Taehyun may or may not have had several heads turned around his way to judge him strutting on the crosswalk like a runway model. He may or may not have received weird glances from people on the subway earlier due to him grinning to himself from time to time like he had gone mad.

Everything was so nice to him from the moment he woke up. Even the dreaded beeping noise at 7:30 that deports him from dreamland sounded music to his ears today.

After thinking this, one would admit that their brain experienced a short-circuit. But for Taehyun, it certainly wasn't.

Being enthusiastic to work in the lowest rank of a corporate team, which he initially cringed to imagine himself as even if it's of the HYBE Group, was the reason to his good feelings, ironically.

As per the saying: content makes poor men rich. He would gradually climb to where he wanted to be as long as he persisted to stay on the rail. Might as well get on his boss' good side as he goes.

To bring out the servility in him, Taehyun decided not to flaunt the dress shirt and corduroy slacks that he bought himself as a celebration yesterday just yet, and went with a formal suit.

The silver matte fit that Yeosang urgently bought him for his graduation night came with a bold red necktie. Surprisingly, they still sat comfortably on his frame just like they did three years ago, and even complemented his bleached hair. Though, he did get a remark from Wooyoung that he smelled like a walking deodorant leaving the house.

Apart from excessive cologne, Taehyun liked his appearance in the reflection in the elevator walls, a dapper officer of Seoul. With pride, he threw the strap over his neck of which the end was linked with the employee ID he just obtained from the front desk.

According to the colourful banner at the entrance, today was the start of orientation, which meant not only that HYBE wasn't playing around with the new recruits, but also a good sign for Taehyun to hope for a bright future.

The problem was, the lady on the phone that day decided not to be helpful to Taehyun and did not give him info for where he should be settling. Not even the floor where Marketing Department was, he had to map it on his own. Then again, he thought he did his best memorizing the structure of the 11th floor. In reality, a maze evacuation would have required less work and energy than trying to figure out which way was "Intersection 6" so that he could turn right.

Lost like a drunk bee, Taehyun stopped the first person he saw, a tall man ahead of him with bright blue hair (didn't know that was allowed here) who seemed to be in a rush.

　"Pardon, sir? Can you tell me where Intersection 6 is?"

　"That way, straight down the- Oh..." the man cut himself off, examining Taehyun's face for a moment, "are you... perhaps Kang Taehyun? The one who joined for the 3-months internship?"

　"Correct, sir."

At least he was being expected, which was, admittedly, a little uncanny for his position. Thus, instead of feeling important, he twitched with unease after detecting a subtle change in the man's expression.

　Where have I seen this guy before?

　"Then come with me, quick. Our team manager is demanding your presence," the man then turned away without hearing a response, leaving in the direction the brunet just came from.