"so, you may not know it yet, but as i told you during the congress, i have signed an agreement with other south korean automobile companies to keep the leadership in terms of offer and sales on the american territory." jaehyun spoke professionally, seated on his massive armchair in front of his office desk, sicheng standing by his side, and yuta and taeyong sitting in front of him in similar armchairs as jaehyun's.

the two businessmen from nakamotors had arrived a few minutes ago, and jaehyun had immediately made the receptionists lead them to his office where the negotiating and the real business would take place.

yuta and taeyong arrived a few minutes before 3pm, just giving jaehyun enough time to brief sicheng on a few topics that may be interesting for him to know as jaehyun's 'secretary', perhaps if the other ceo dared to ask him something unexpected.

they greeted each other quickly, jaehyun keeping all of his focus on the other ceo, studying his every move – mostly when he smirked as he shook sicheng's hand, not forgetting to add a snarky remark that was quick to make the chinese male's blood boil.

a minute later, jaehyun invited the two males to sit down, and he started his little speech, decided to make nakamotors retreat from the american market and leave the monopole to jaehyun.

"as impressive of an actor as you are, your company makes no exception to this agreement that we signed with other companies, and that is why i would like us to arrange ourselves in order to find a compromise which would let me keep the lead on the american market." the ceo of jung corporation continued, his eyes focused on yuta who seemed too busy checking his surroundings rather than listening to the other male. "mister nakamoto?" jaehyun called the man. "are you listening to me or- "

"something intrigues me about this place, mister jung." the new ceo cut jaehyun's words, causing the male to tense up in something between rage and desperation.

"nakamoto, i was- "

the ceo got cut again before he could finish his sentence. "i expected your office to look more inviting, and less dark, perhaps..." yuta voiced out, looking at his surroundings curiously. "it's full of wood and tapestries... no offence, but it feels like i'm sitting in the chateau of versailles back in the 18th century."

jaehyun stayed silent, his arms crossed over his chest as he stared at yuta spitting nonsense.

by his side, sicheng seemed to be holding himself with all of his might from snapping at the arrogant male. he was clutching on his notebook and his pen – a jung corporation goodie that jaehyun had lent him to avoid a misunderstanding like during the congress – to the point that his knuckles were turning white.

"are you done analysing my office, mister nakamoto?" jaehyun spoke calmly after yuta's speech. "i believe we have more important topics to talk about."

"sure, please proceed." the japanese ceo flashed jaehyun a bright smile, somehow exasperating the other businessman.

"so, as i was saying, we need to find a compromise that would- "

"one last thing." yuta cut jaehyun's words again, this time causing sicheng to tsk out loud and making jaehyun breathe out slowly as if to prevent himself from yelling at yuta. "where does sicheng work in this renaissance-looking office?"

jaehyun cleared his throat, glancing at his fake-secretary who looked like he would start talking back to yuta any second from now. but it seemed like this was what yuta sought to do, judging by the way he was looking at jaehyun's secretary with a smirk.

"sicheng has his own office down the corridor." jaehyun lied with ease.

"oh, and is his office linked to yours by a hidden door in the tapestry, just like in those old chateaux when the king would make his mistresses come and leave through the secret doors so that they don't get caught?" yuta asked, his eyes full of mischief as he looked between jaehyun and sicheng.

the ceo took another deep breath, being not so far from requesting the receptionist to bring him a bottle of whiskey so that he could gulp it down as an escape from this awful appointment. "there's no reason for sicheng to come and leave without getting caught, so we use the normal door, for your information." jaehyun answered, his voice still calm and collected despite all of the nasty emotions bloated inside of him and wanting nothing more but to get out and lash at the other ceo.

"oh, okay. not fun." yuta shrugged before readjusting his position on the armchair. "you can go on."

all it took was a shake of the head for jaehyun to find the right words again and to start speaking about busness with the japanese ceo.

and if jaehyun was able to control his emotions and appear unphased when the ceo of nakamotors was so insolent and provocative, it wasn't sicheng's case as the engineer still had yuta's words ringing in his ears, making him want to punch the man in the face even more with each second passing.

the chinese male ignored the serious words that were exchanged between the two ceos, knowing that he wouldn't be able to understand half of them because he wasn't a business-person, but rather a science one. instead, the engineer focused on yuta's secretary, who seemed busy both staring at jaehyun as if he was a god, and scribbling notes on his notebook at a fast pace – surely to keep a trace of what had been said between the two important actors of the automobile sector.

sicheng truly wondered how the man could cope with yuta on a daily basis. sicheng had only met him twice, and he was already close to wanting to murder him because of how arrogant he was, so sicheng couldn't imagine how he must have felt if he was in taeyong's shoes... plus, when they had chatted in the bathroom at the congress, the secretary had seemed genuinely nice, so sicheng had no idea how he had ended up being the secretary of such a bitchy person – and mostly how he could still be his secretary when he acted like a spoiled brat.

the engineer was startled in the middle of his reflexion by a hand patting his shoulder, causing him to look down at a seated jaehyun who had visibly called him.

"mmh?" he hummed, suddenly feeling self-conscious and scared that he missed an important point of the meeting.

"your phone." the ceo stated simply, causing sicheng to wake up fully from the daze he was in and to realise that his phone was indeed ringing loudly and disturbing the business-atmosphere that had taken over the office.

the chinese male pulled his phone out of his pocket and couldn't help but have his eyes widening slightly at the name displayed on the screen.

"i-i... s-sorry, it's an important supplier, i need to take the call." the engineer stuttered before heading to the door and walking out of the office to answer the call.

back in the office, yuta kept his eyes on the chinese male as he walked across the office, and this until he had disappeared behind the heavy wooden door.

"so, mister nakamoto, how about the european market, like we were discussing?" jaehyun started speaking again once the office fell back in the silence.

"i think we should wait for your secretary to come back to continue speaking about business matters." yuta dodged the question, smiling at jaehyun who couldn't help but sigh again.

"i believe we don't need our secretaries to hear everything about it. after all, we're the ones to take the final decisions." the ceo of jung corporation explained.

"well, i do not agree with that." yuta shrugged. "but it's fine, we'll wait for a minute. i need to go to the bathroom anyway." the ceo added, standing up from his armchair and flashing a small smile at his secretary while doing so.

jaehyun sighed for what seemed to be the nth time in the past hour – at that pace, he'd be able to win the record of sighs in an hour – as he stared at the other ceo.

"second door on the right when you get out of the office." jaehyun mumbled uninterestedly as he glanced down at the pile of papers on his desk, deciding that it would be better to advance on his work while the other was away.

"i'm hoping to find myself in a middle age mood even in the bathroom." the ceo snickered as he headed towards the door.

and with another sigh jaehyun rolled his eyes at yuta's attack. "whatever."

☏

sicheng gulped, slamming the door of the bathroom shut as he accepted the call one ringtone away before he could send his boss on the voicemail.

"nano electronics, sicheng speaking." the technician spoke out, his heart beating fast in his chest in apprehension. he never knew what to expect when he had his boss on the phone.

"dong sicheng, where the hell are you?!" his voice came out as a scream which almost deaefened the poor chinese male.

"i-i... i got held back at mrs cho's mansion." sicheng was quick to ad.

"i thought you said arranging their tv wouldn't take you more than an hour?!" the boss continued yelling in the phone.

"w-well..." sicheng gulped, trying his best to find a plausible excuse as to why he wasn't back at the shop yet when he was supposed to be done with his mission. "t-they asked me to intervene on their wifi problems too."

"yeah, and you're going to make me believe that this is taking hours again?" the boss asked sceptically.

"actually, the problem is that something was badly wired with their optical fiber, and i needed to undo the whole installation to do it again. i'm almost done with it, and after that i'll just need to reinitialize the wifi so that it- "

"yes, i know the procedures, thank you sicheng, no need to teach me something that i know better than you!" sicheng's boss tsked, making the chinese male bite his lip in nervousness.

"y-yeah..." he stuttered, fearing the boss' next words.

"okay, you better be back at the shop before 4:30pm. i still have a few things i need you to do." the voice over the phone spat, making sicheng pull the phone from his ear quickly to look at the time.

"4:30? but it's in less than 45 minutes! i'll never have the time to- "

"well, make it happen anyway." his boss cut him, slightly yelling this time. "otherwise, you know what's waiting for you..."

sicheng gulped, knowing very well what his boss was referring to: being fired. he had been threatened to be fired for the past week, and with each day passing, the more the conviction of his boss to fire him seemed to get high, meaning that sicheng didn't have much more time before being jobless. "y-yes, sir."

"great." his boss hummed. "and you better do your work well, because i swear that if i have a complaint from mrs cho, i'm strangling you with the optical fiber myself!"

and before sicheng even had the time to talk back, his boss hung up on him, leaving him alone in the bathroom with a fast-beating heart and worries as huge as mount everest.

well, alone? not exactly.

"knowing how snappy you can be when someone's disrespecting you, i'm surprised to see you didn't even speak back when this person was clearly yelling at you." yut's voice rang into sicheng's ears, causing the chinese male to reach a state of panic that he didn't know he was able to reach.

had he just busted his and jaehyun's cover to his biggest rival with a call from his boss? he really hoped not, otherwise he was really doomed.

"what are you doing here?" the chinese male snapped, glaring at the ceo.

"you left in a hurry, i was worried, that's all." yuta answered as he tilted his head to the side, offering sicheng a warm smile.

"you didn't have to worry, i just needed to take this call." sicheng explained.

"so, do you let suppliers speak to you so rudely?" yuta changed subjects, recalling sicehng's words when the male had left jaehyun's office a minute ago.

"i-i..."

"or was it someone else? someone that i'll have to scold for disrespecting you, of course." the ceo added with a chuckle, raising a brow at the chinese male whose grip on his phone tightened in annoyance.

"i'm not sure you need to know." the fake-secretary stated simply.

"too bad. i would have taken advantage of my position to make them understand how unpleasant it is to get disrespected like that." yuta shrugged before sending sicheng a wink.

sicheng had managed to hold back for long – actually, much longer than he could imagine – but now it was too much; way too much. he knew jaehyun wanted him to keep his cool and act unbothered, but he had reached a point where this was too much to ask for him.

the chinese male came from a world of mathematicians and physicians, or in other words, cartesian people, conversing and doing things logically by using their reason. he wasn't familiar with those free-thinker businessmen who used metaphors and idiotic features of speech to lose their interlocutor and rip them off easier.

and so, right now, standing in front of yuta – perhaps the most free-thinker of the free-thinkers sicheng ever met – was close to being one of the hardest things sicheng ever had to do in his life. and as a cartesian himself, he couldn't help but feel the need to use his reason and his logic as a defence mechanism to the businessman's attacks.

"i believe the use of 'would' here is unnecessary judging by how taking advantage of your position is something you do on a daily basis." jaehyun's fake-secretary snapped, glaring at yuta with such intensity that it made the japanese ceo smirk.

"oh, really now?" yuta raised a brow, now looking forward to sicheng's next attacks.

"i guess i don't need to recall you your speech at the congress, huh?" sicheng tilted his head to the side. "you know, the one in which you make all other businessmen feel like nobodies next to the amazing splendour of the empire you built on your own."

"ooh, someone listened to my speech attentively, i see..." yuta chuckled at sicheng's words, making the chinese male's blood boil even more.

"yes, i did listen to it attentively, and let me tell you, this is a speech that i'll repeat to my children in the future to show them how much of an arrogant prick they might become if they follow your lead!"sicheng raised his voice, his tone more menacing as his glare intensified.

yuta smiled even brighter. "aw... talking about me to your children... i'm so touched by those words..."he cooed, making sicheng want to punch him in the face – but that, he held himself from doing it.

sicheng took a deep breath, closing his eyes for a second before looking back into yuta's eyes with determination.

"i am not the ceo there, so i have no right to kick you out, but be aware that if i was the ceo, you'd already be banned from this old-fashioned chateau of versailles as you called it; and that you'd already have a harassment case on your back!" sicheng exclaimed, hoping that this time, he'd have made it clear enough that he didn't want to have anything to do with the ceo anymore.

"too bad you're not the ceo then..." yuta feigned sadness by pouting. "we would not only have seen each other at work, but also outside of work at court!"

this was the last draw for sicheng who couldn't help but let out a loud snort.

the chinese male didn't answer immediately, keeping his snarky remark for another time as he was starting to understand that yuta would find a way to tease and annoy him whatever he said. so, in the end, it would be better for them to just stop this conversation here and go back to their business meeting.

the quicker the business thing was done, the quicker sicheng could get far away from yuta – and accessorily, the quicker he could get to nano electronics and hope not to be fired for good this time.

"you know what? i'm tired of talking with you." sicheng spat. "i think it will be better for both of us to just go back into mister jung's office and have a professional business talk – well, that is if you are able to speak professionally without being arrogant, but i believe this is still a work in progress for you."

"sweet idea." yuta flashed sicheng a bright smile. "and if your kink is professionalism, then no problem, i can be very professional."

sicheng wasn't aware a snort could be this loud; and yet, yuta had made him snort so loud that he even surprised himself. yuta was able to say exactly the right things to exasperate sicheng to an extent that no one could even imagine.

needless to say, the chinese male wanted nothing more than to escape this hell.

"just be aware that i wish i could hit you." sicheng spat, his lever of frustration and anger reaching beyond limits.

the male turned on his heels and headed towards the door to get out of there for good, however, yuta's words made him freeze for a nick of time.

"well, just be aware that you're cute when you get angry."

and well, this did nothing but anger sicheng even more...

☏

"it was a pleasure to deal with you mister jung. i'll be looking forwards to our next encounters." the ceo of nakamotors stated, giving both jaehyun and sicheng one of his brightest smiles as him and taeyong neared the door of the jung corporation headquarters.

"shared pleasure." jaehyun spoke without much enthusiasm. "have a nice day, mister nakamoto."

"have a nice day, mister jung." yuta bowed his head at the ceo before diverting his eyes to his secretary. "and have an extremely nice day, sicheng."

jaehyun glanced sideways at his fake-secretary who seemed to be boiling once again, just like he had been during the whole meeting and the visit of the headquarters – mostly because whatever he did, yuta found a way to make remarks which concerned him.

thankfully, before sicheng could explode for good, yuta's secretary greeted the two males goodbye.

"g-goodbye." the secretary stuttered out. "i-it was a pleasure... to deal with you."

and for jaehyun and sicheng's greatest pleasure, this last sentence concluded their meeting, causing yuta and taeyong to turn around and walk away where they must have been parked.

the two other males sighed in unison, immediately turning on their heels as well and heading back to jaehyun's office.

"i swear to god, his business better crash before the end of the year, because i won't be able to deal with him for long." jaehyun declared, letting himself fall seated on his armchair, sicheng doing the same in front of him.

"yeah, he better crash, because there's no way i'm pretending to be your secretary in front of him ever again." the chinese male whined before gasping in realisation. "oh fuck! i need to go back to the shop or my boss is going to kill me!"

the engineer immediately hopped to his feet, rushing to one of the many cupboards inside the office and picking his huge bag that he had left there.

"i'm sorry, mister jung, i really need to go."

the ceo straightened his back on his armchair, checking his expensive watch. "what time do you need to be there?"

"before 4:30pm." sicheng announced. "and it's..."

"4:32." jaehyun finished, making sicheng panic even more.

"oh fuck, i'm dead..."

the ceo heaved out a sigh, placing his hands on his office desk and pushing himself up.

"i'll drop you off." he announced. "you'll get there faster than if you were taking the public transportation at least."

"o-oh..." sicheng blinked. "i-it's okay, you don't have to if you don't want to. i can take the bus."

"it's fine." the ceo shrugged it off, walking by sicheng's side as he headed towards the door. "and i need to ask you something regarding the meeting we just had."

the two males walked side by side across the corridor and took the lift down to the parking lot, reaching jaehyun's car in a nick of time. knowing the place like the back of his hand, jaehyun drove them out of the parking lot in a record time, and he didn't waste a second to get into the mid-afternoon traffic in direction of sicheng's workplace.

"thank you for driving me there." sicheng smiled at the ceo, thankful for his kind act – even though he was aware that he had been doing this with a motive; one that was questions that jaehyun had regarding the meeting, and questions that he hoped he would have an answer to. "so... you had a question for me?"

"yes." jaehyun nodded simply, turning his head left to check if someone was coming from there as he lit up his right turning light.

"okay..." sicheng stated, his eyes still on the male. "and... what was it?"

jaehyun took a few seconds to give sicheng an answer. "did nakamoto tell you anything business-related?"

sicheng blinked a few times, quite taken aback by the question.

"w-why would he tell me anything business-related?" the chinese male asked.

"well, he's always talking to you." jaehyun explained simply, fully aware of all those times when yuta paid more attention to jaehyun's fake-secretary than to his mail rival.

"true but he's never really talking about anything interesting." sicheng stated, the sole thought of his and yuta's conversations making him want to hit himself repeatedly in the head.

"what does he tell you?" jaehyun questioned, genuinely curious as to what the ceo could have to talk about with a mere secretary when he could be talking to the traditional leader of the automobile sector.

"nothing much." sicheng assured with a shrug.

"why does talking about 'nothing much' take him so much time, then?" the ceo continued his interrogatory, glancing at his fake secretary.

"because he takes a liking in pissing me off. each time i say something, he manages to finds something to retort that only irks me more." sicheng explained truthfully what his and yuta's conversations consisted in. it was basically an endless tennis exchange during which each hit of the ball was harder and more powerful. an exchange that wouldn't stop until sicheng decided not to catch the ball. "in other words, he's an arrogant prick. but i believe you saw that already."

"i can't deny it." jaehyun nodded. "he indeed has one hell of an attitude, and it only makes me want to crush him harder."

sicheng simply hummed, silently approving jaehyun's words.

considering how unbearable yuta was in his eyes, sicheng couldn't even imagine what jaehyun could feel, being a ceo and seeing such an asshole appearing magically one day, and stealing all of his sales.

"i really hope i won't have to spend another afternoon sitting in the same room as him and speaking about business." jaehyun sighed. "at least he ended up agreeing to leave me the american market, but we never know what shit he can pull next."

"it's in moments like those that i'm happy being an engineer." sicheng nodded, his eyes looking at the busy city through the windshield.

"i swear, he's so unpredictable and bitchy, you can never know his next move..." jaehyun sighed. "and he's sensible, you can see he's playing dumb and innocent, but that he'll be able to steal your business secrets even before you can think about uncovering his." the ceo continued with a sigh. "don't you agree?"

"yeah, you're very right." sicheng nodded, his lips curving up in a smile as he recognised the front window of the 'nano electronics' shop.

jaehyun nodded in approval as he parked in front of sicheng's workplace. "so... conclusion of this meeting?" he asked, glancing at sicheng who unbuckled his seatbelt.

"well, it was catastrophic." sicheng stated, collecting his stuff. "yuta is a vicious bitch, and he'd be ready to play anyone that messes with him." he continued, opening the door and hoping out of the car. "oh, and taeyong, looks so into you that it hurts."

"taeyong?" jaehyun frowned, his eyes following sicheng as the male shut the door and walked around the car to stand next to jaehyun's open window.

"yeah, his secretary." sicheng specified. "the boy has been looking at you dreamily the whole afternoon. honestly, it seemed like you could ask him one of his deepest secrets, and he would be ready to tell it to you without second thoughts."

the ceo stayed frozen, his eyes blinking a few times as sicheng peeked on the car's dashboard to check the time.

"oh god, it's 4:42pm... i'm going to get scolded." the chinese male cursed. "thank you so much for the ride again. goodbye!"

and with that said, the technician left jaehyun on his own, parked in front of 'nano electronics', his brain making links and connexions at the speed of light until he realised...

"fuck, this could be a good idea..."