"i see someone had a very good night, huh?" was the first thing taeyong heard as he stepped in his and yuta's office, only to find the ceo wiggling his brows at him.

"i did." taeyong answered simply, trying his best to contain his smile as he walked to his desk and plopped down on his swivel chair.

"so?" yuta questioned again, his elbow resting on the table and his chin propped on his palm as he smirked at his secretary. "did you guys go all the way or...?"

taeyong's cheeks instantly flushed red as he imagined what could have happened if his and jaehyun's dinner had prolonged to something more intimate. but he was quick to shake his head in order to wash those thoughts away.

"no, we just had a very nice dinner." the secretary explained to which the ceo huffed.

"no fun." yuta declared. "was it good at least?"

"yeah..." taeyong replied, once again long lost in a daze as he recalled his night alongside jaehyun.

he couldn't have dreamt of anything better happening.

since his and jaehyun's first encounter, taeyong had found himself wondering how it would be if they came to have some sort of date, and the dinner of the night before had exceeded each of taeyong's expectations.

"wow..." yuta let out as he stared at his secretary with a brow raised. "you look like you had one of the best nights of your life..."

"i did..." taeyong replied without thinking – but not necessarily lying – as he fell back into an endless daze about his dinner and how much boyfriend material jaehyun really was.

"does that mean that you finally found someone with whom it could work?" yuta asked, a small smile appearing on his face as he was happy that taeyong had finally found someone worth being with.

taeyong didn't answer immediately, taking a while to think about his answer.

oh god, how much he wanted it to work with jaehyun... how much he wanted to be able to get to know him more and to date him for real, and who knows, maybe after start being official...

but would that be possible when he was yuta's secretary and when jaehyun was yuta's business rival? he wasn't sure about it...

but anyway, as long as it was just little things as meaningless as a dinner and a ride back home, yuta didn't necessarily need to know what was going on between them, and so, taeyong could enjoy it a bit more.

"i'm not sure but..." taeyong hesitated. "...but i hope it could."

yuta flashed taeyong a sincere smile. "i'm happy for you, yong."

the secretary stayed silent, smiling back at his boss before switching on his computers to start working. and after a few seconds of silence, yuta was the one to speak.

"i reinstalled dating apps again..." the ceo announced, making taeyong look at him immediately.

"again?!" the secretary asked. "but hadn't you said that you were focusing back on making yourself happy without dating?"

"i did, i did..." yuta sighed. "but then you looked so happy going to your date yesterday night that it made me want to try again. and judging by how dreamy you look right now, who knows, maybe i'll find someone amazing too."

"o-oh..." taeyong chuckled, his cheeks reddening as he realised that he may have been unable to hide his happiness at the idea of having a dinner with jaehyun the night before.

"i matched with three guys, and there's one of them with whom i talked a lot." yuta continued. "he asked if we could meet tomorrow night. it's a bit early, but well, i was craving some nice attention so i agreed anyway."

"so, you have a date tomorrow night." taeyong repeated.

"exactly." yuta nodded. "and i'm seriously hoping it will go as well as yours."

taeyong blushed again at yuta's words. his boss kept claiming that his dinner with jaehyun was a date, and the korean secretary didn't want to tell him otherwise in fear of making him mad for hanging out with his rival. but anyway, the sole thought of imagining that the dinner of the night before could be a date was enough to send taeyong's heart into overdrive.

"so, if you don't see me at the meeting sunday morning, then you'll know that my date was amazing."the ceo chuckled, making the secretary frown.

"sunday?" he repeated. "what do we have on sunday?"

"oh, there's this car fair at a nearby car dealership." yuta explained. "mister jung and i agreed to meet here on sunday morning before actually going to the fair. but if i don't wake up, you can just tell him to meet us directly at the fair, i shall be awoken by then."

"all right..." the secretary answered, now remembering that they had discussed about this car fair during their last meeting.

the ceo sighed loudly, focusing back on his computer as taeyong opened the applications he would need to use during the day.

"so, do we have anything to do in particular today?" yuta questioned.

"not that i remember of." taeyong shook his head, opening his agenda and checking their schedule for friday. "oh, you have a first brainstorming on what to present for world creativity and innovation day at 2pm."

"oh, right!" yuta nodded. "when is that again, two months from now? one month?"

"one and a half." taeyong informed. "and i think we still have a month to send them the presentation support that we will use."

"perfect." yuta nodded. "let's go then. they're so not ready for what i'm going to show them..."

☏

the electric technician sighed, completely removing the screws from the unfunctional router before opening it and checking the few wires and electronic cards inside.

knowing its different components by heart, sicheng skilfully pushed away the elements that didn't interest him and focused on the few pieces which could have caused a problem to the router.

with a variety of clamps and tweezers, the engineer pulled out the controller chip before examining it with a magnifying glass.

just as he was about to read the series number written on the back of the chip, a voice startled him, making him drop all of the thigns he was holding on the open router.

the electric technician lifted his head with a scowl, hoping that this person had a good reason to disturb him, only to have his eyes opening wide at who was standing in front of him.

"sorry, i startled you." jaehyun declared, his eyes on the pieces of electronics that had fallen from sicheng's hands.

"it's okay." the engineed brushed it off, taking back his magnifying glass and controller chip before putting them to the side. "huh... can i ask you what you are doing at nano electronics on a saturday afternoon?"

don't get him wrong, sicheng had actually no problem seeing jaehyun here on a saturday afternoon. in fact, his presence was somewhat comforting to him, because he had been focused on his electronical problems since the beginning of the day, without anyone to interact with.

so, on this saturday afternoon – another saturday he had had to work because of his annoying boss – sicheng was quite happy to see the ceo of jung corporation. plus, the fact that he wasn't wearing his usual expensive tuxedo and shirt, but rather very casual jeans with a simple white t-shirt made him much more friendly and approachable.

"you weren't answering on your phone so..." jaehyun paused himself. "i came to check whether you were here or not."

"you came all the way from your house to here just to talk to me?" the engineer asked with a brow raised, somewhat feeling touched by the gesture.

"well... yeah- no, actually, i needed to go somewhere around here so i stopped by." the ceo corrected himself quickly.

something was wrong with jaehyun. he couldn't recognise himself anymore.

ever since this dinner he had spent with yuta's secretary, it seemed like his conception of things and human relations had changed.

jaehyun had always been fine on his own, working at his office late and going back to an empty house. this had always been his daily life, and he was very happy with it. depending on someone could become a brake to work and success, and jaehyun didn't want to be stopped in his ambitions by a brake.

but then, his dinner with taeyong two days ago had made him crave presence in his life.

he had never imagined he would be thinking this way one day, but spending a whole night with someone for something else than business matters had done him a lot of good.

not only had he been able to get to know more about taeyong, but he had also been pleasantly surprised by the way taeyong seemed to be interested in him. it wasn't just jaehyun speaking about his business, and how he had worked to get here and what he planned for the future of his company. it was a genuine talk between two human beings. it was as if in this exact moment, it didn't matter whether jaehyun was a ceo, a singer or just a teacher. what mattered was who jaehyun was on the inside, the human jaehyun.

and he had liked this interaction more than he thought he would...

the day after his and taeyong's dinner, jaehyun had found himself alone at work – as usual you would say. sicheng wasn't around since the male wasn't his real secretary, and they weren't supposed to meet with nakamoto that day, so there was no need for him to be there. and yet, jaehyun found himself lonely in his old-fashioned office, craving for someone else' presence to joke around or just talk to him.

the ceo couldn't understand what was happening to him.

how come everything had so suddenly changed after one small dinner with his rival's secretary?

plus, this dinner wasn't even supposed to be a friendly dinner or anything. it was a dinner organised so that jaehyun could get more information on the rival business; a dinner during which he was supposed to brainwash his rival's secretary to spill all of their business secrets... so why the hell was he feeling like he had been the one brainwashed in all of this?!

"jung... mister jung?!"

jaehyun blinked in confusion, his eyes falling on sicheng's hand which was resting on his bicep.

"y-yeah?" the ceo stuttered.

"a-are you... are you okay?" sicheng asked, genuinely concerned by the ceo's behaviour.

"i-i..." the ceo of jung corporation gulped, looking at his surroundings for a few seconds before concentrating on sicheng again. "i-i'm okay, yes."

"are you sure?" sicheng questioned suspiciously. "you seem a bit out of your plate."

"no, no." jaehyun shook his head. "i was just... thinking. yeah, just thinking." he assured.

"okay..." sicheng nodded. "then... did you need something?"

the ceo thought for a few seconds, as if to understand why sicheng would be asking him this question. everything felt so weird and jaehyun wasn't used to it at all. he didn't know what to do at that point.

"huh, yes." he suddenly remembered the reason of his ride to nano electronics. "on sunday, nakamoto and i have this... huh... car fair that we have to attend. you can come too if you'd like. but you don't have to if you don't feel like it because you were working today, and i'm sure you would want a day of break after a long week, so it's okay really if you cannot- "

"dong sicheng!"

the electric engineer visibly tensed at the sudden interjection of his boss.

"y-yes, sir?" he turned around to face the man that was approaching.

"are you done with this router or are you slacking off once aga- oh, mister jung!" the boss' eyes widened again at the sight of the ceo of jung corporation standing in his boutique.

"good afternoon." jaehyun simply said, with a nod.

"i-i'm almost done with the router." sicheng quickly told. 

"great. because i have something else for you."

"huh, yeah?"

"the 'stars'n bar' downtown has a problem with their menus. you know they're the trendy place that has their menu on tablets. well, general problem on the network and nothing works, so i need you to fix that." sicheng's boss informed. "but before that, i need that router operational, understood?"

"yes sir." sicheng nodded.

"great." the man finished before looking up at the ceo. "did you need something mister jung?"

"huh... no thank you, i was just... having sicheng explain me something real quick." jaehyun replied with a quick smile, earning a confused stare from sicheng's boss.

"okay then... goodbye."

"bye." jaehyun stated as he looked at sicheng's superior walking back inside the warehouse attached to the shop.

the two males were left in silence, sicheng taking this opportunity to go back to work on the router.

"don't come to the car fair tomorrow." jaehyun announced, making sicheng lift his head.

"what? why?" sicheng asked. "i should be here, i'm your secretary."

"no, you don't have to." jaehyun insisted. "it's sunday, it's okay if you don't come. plus, your boss is making you work so much. you need to rest." the ceo continued arguing. "did he give you a raise, like i asked?"

the engineer sighed. "no." he told. "nano electronics is broke so he couldn't. he allowed me to take a week of holiday, that's the best he could give me."

"okay." jaehyun nodded. "well, at least you're going to have a bit of rest."

"mmh." sicheng hummed, his eyes focused on his router and its controlling chip.

jaehyun looked at the electrical technician working in silence, impressed by sicheng's carefulness and precision. he indeed was a very good worker in jaehyun's mind.

"will it take you long to fix this thing?" jaehyun asked after a while.

"the router?" sicheng raised a brow. "not more than half an hour i hope."

"i'll be waiting for you." jaehyun informed. "i can drop you at the stars'n bar after."

"you really don't need to, i can take the bus." sicheng sighed.

"no, i insist. i'll drive you there."

the engineer lifted his head from his electrical components before flashing jaheyun a genuine smile. "thank you so much, mister jung..."

the ceo was about to answer but stopped himself, looking at his hands for a few seconds before coughing. "sicheng?" he called.

"yes?" the male tilted his head to the side.

"you can just..." the ceo took a deep breath. "just call me jaehyun from now on."

sicheng's eyes widened, surprised by the sudden request from a man that he knew to be very megalomaniac and distant. "o-okay..." he simply stuttered.

oh god, jaehyun didn't know what was going on... how come a simple dinner had such an influence on him...?

☏

"so... what does it say?"

"huh..." sicheng hummed, crouched under the electric panel, his upper body inside the cupboard in which the stars'n bar's staff left all of the wires to charge and reset all of their electronic menus. "nothing too problematic. i just think there was some kind of shortcut in the system, but it will be easy to fix."

"oh, thank god!" the waitress that was standing by his side gasped.

"can you pass me my gloves please?" sicheng questioned, pointing in the direction of his bag.

"of course!" the waitress pulled the two pieces of cloth from sicheng's bag and handed them to him so that he had some kind of protection on before playing with electricity.

"thank you." the engineer smiled before going back inside the cupboard and toying with the wires. "does that happen often?"

"huh... no, it's the first time." the waitress informed.

"and you have no idea what could have caused it?" sicheng continued questioning her.

"i mean, i'm no expert, so..." she shrugged.

the chinese male groaned as he pulled himself out of the cupboard and stood up facing the waitress.

"could i see one of the tablets, please?" he asked.

"oh, sure." the waitress immediately picked a grey tablet and handed it to sicheng.

the electric engineer tried to switch it on, and studied it carefully. "are they connected to the internet?"

"huh, yes. the restaurant's network." the waitress nodded.

"and do you know how they are configurated?"

"i-i'm not sure..." she stuttered. "would you mind if i brought you someone who surely has more information about it?"

"of course, please do." sicheng nodded with a smile.

"thank you. i'm coming back in a minute."

sicheng sighed once again, wiping the sweat off his forehead as he looked at his surroundings.

he had never been to this restaurant, but the atmosphere was very nice. it had this kind of american vibe with the commercial music from the 2010s and the dozens of pictures of waiters with american stars. plus, the walls were covered with frames in which were exposed sportswear of famous people with their autograph. soccer players, f1 racers, baseball players... all kinds of sports were represented, and this created a very nice environment to have a dinner in, or even just to have a drink.

the chinese male's eyes then look around the tables at the people enjoying their drinks or meals, somehow envying them for enjoying their weekend peacefully in a good restaurant. sicheng wondered if one day he'd be able to come here and have a nice time...

in his observation of the families and friends eating there, sicheng's eyes fell onto the front door of the restaurant which had just been opened by two males, surely looking for a nice place to have a dinner date. and so, just as sicheng's lips were curving up in the smile at the thought of having a dinner date with someone, his eyes widened in shock as he realised that he knew one of the two males who had just entered.

yuta nakamoto, also known as the ceo of nakamotors was there, standing side by side with another male while they discussed, waiting for a waiter to bring them to a table. it is unnecessary to specify that for yuta, sicheng was jaehyun's secretary, and so, that he would have no reason standing in his ugly-ass orange nano electronics uniform behind the bar to fix their tablet menus.

"oh shit!" the chinese male swore, immediately jumping to the ground to disappear behind the bar and hopefully not get caught by yuta.

"mister dong, he'll surely be able to answer to your questions better than- mister dong?" the waitress frowned when she saw sicheng crouching on the floor. "is everything alright?"

"yes, yes!" sicheng gave them a sheepish smile. "huh... i may have found the problem. how did you say the tablets were configurated again?"

"well, to configurate them, we plug them to this box." the waiter showed sicheng the box. "and then we connect them to the network via wifi."

"okay, let me check something very quickly." sicheng declared before bending again and studying the configurating box.

and a few minutes later, after a few curse words, questions to the waiter and readjustments in terms of wiring and organisation, sicheng was able to switch a tablet on and show it to the two waiters with a smile.

"here we are!" he exclaimed. "all repaired."

"oh my god, thank you so much!" the waitress gasped, a bright smile appearing on her face. "you saved us!"

"it's okay, i'm just doing my job." sicheng chuckled, staying crouched on the floor to be hidden behind the bar.

"can you grab the envelope with the payment for him please?" she asked to the other waiter who immediately nodded and left.

"would you like to have a drink here? it's on us, as a thank you for your amazing services." the waitress asked sicheng.

"o-oh, huh..." the chinese male lifted himself a bit to look around the room and check if he could see yuta somewhere. thankfully, it didn't seem like yuta was in the main room, perhaps in one of the spaces on the side, so sicheng could be sitting at the bar without fearing to be seen by the japanese male. "okay, sure." he nodded. "i simply need to get myself changed, and then i'm up for a drink."

"no problem." the waitress smiled at him. "the bathrooms are just here." she informed, pointing at the end of the bar where could be seen a panel with the inscription 'lavatory' and an arrow.

and so, after a dozen minutes, sicheng was changed into fresh clothes, his orange uniform tucked at the very bottom of his bag with the envelope containing the payment. he exhaled loudly after taking a sip from his very refreshing cocktail, enjoying the coldness of the drink and its fruity flavour after a long day of work.

the chinese male let himself get lost in his thoughts, his head slightly bobbing to the music playing in the restaurant as his eyes wandered around the restaurant, looking at people enjoying their time.

it was very calm and peaceful, perhaps one of the best moments sicheng had had these past weeks. it was true that now, with jaehyun's appearance in his life and his boss who kept being a bitch to him, it seemed like he had twice more work and that he didn't have a second to himself anymore... but he was very glad to know that for once, he could be able to enjoy a good saturday night on his own, without thinking about work.

keyword: could be able. which didn't mean that he would be able to...

"well, well, well..." a voice sicheng knew too well startled him. "if that isn't mister jung's secretary..."

and yeah, it seemed like sicheng's oh-so-precious peaceful night wouldn't be that night...