"yes, dad, i know..." the young ceo of jung corporation sighed loudly as he walked inside his office, his phone tucked between his ear and his shoulder while he tightened his grip on the few files he was carrying.

"son, i am repeating it again, but never underestimate your own employees. some of them could be even worse to you than your enemies." jaehyun's father insisted, repeating words that the ceo had heard over and over again since the beginning of his life.

right after throwing the stack of papers he was holding on his wooden office desk, the ceo put his phone on speaker and let himself slump on the expensive armchair in front of his desk, his eyes rolling to the back of his head as he listened to his father rambling about how to manage a company.

it seemed like they kept having this speech. even before jaehyun acquired the level of ceo, his father was constantly telling him about managing a business, the dos and don'ts, what to fear and what not to be impressed of. and now that jaehyun had become the new ceo, his father took even more pleasure trying to explain to him how everything should and shouldn't be done. 

"son, can you understand what i'm saying?" the father stopped in his rambling for a second, somehow weirded out by the lack of response from his son.

"yes, of couse, i do." jaehyun replied immediately, letting his eyes travel across his desk on which a few papers had been dropped earlier that day.

"good. so, as i was saying..."

jaehyun didn't bother listening to what his father was saying, knowing very well that he surely had already heard about it five times – if not more – in his previous 26 years of existence. instead, the young ceo focused on the documents someone had placed on his desk.

most of them were reports he had asked for, eventually a few quotes that he would need to sign, but nothing too interesting – well, aside from the black envelope that was hiding in between two sheets of papers.

the ceo delicately took the envelope in his hands, studying it carefully before turning it around and letting out an indiscreet snort at the sight of the logo.

"son! are you snorting to what i just said?!" the ceo's father exclaimed, annoyed by his son's unbelievable's behaviour. "this is not a good ceo's behaviour!"

"no, no." jaehyun mentally scolded himself for letting this noise out carelessly. "i was snorting because i received another letter from nakamotors."

"oh..." there was a small silence. "wait, nakamotors? what do they want?"

jaehyun shrugged even though his father wouldn't be able to see through the phone. "how would i know."

"well, open it and tell me!"

not needing his father's invite to do so, jaehyun grabbed a pair of scissors on the desk before tearing open the top of the envelope and revealing a black cardboard piece of paper on which some words were calligraphed in an silvery ink.

"so? what is it?" jaehyun's father asked again as his son silently read the letter he had received.

his answer came only a few seconds later, after he had finished his reading and rolled his eyes a few times. "it's nothing." he said. "just an invite to the congress he's holding for the anniversary of his success next week. but i'm definitely not going so it's useless any- "

"wow, wow, wow!" jaehyun's father exclaimed, causing the ceo to lower the volume of his phone a bit. "what do you mean you're not going?! of course you are!"

"dad, i don't want to go and face this man." jaehyun explained. "pretty much everyone will be all over him, trying to get in his good papers for when they'll be a step away from bankrupt."

"yes, and you are going to do exactly the same as these greedy men." the father explained very calmly.

"huh, excuse me?!" the ceo exclaimed. "this will never happen."

"jung jaehyun, you better go to this congress and speak to each and every ceo out there before getting in nakamoto's good papers." jaehyun's father said sternly, making the young ceo sigh.

"but- "

"can you imagine what could happen if you came to get closer to him?" jaehyun's words got cut by his father. "what if he ended up letting one of his business secrets slip? and what if he shared with you the key to a better success? you cannot avoid this, son. our company needs it, you need it. and you know why? because..."

another sigh slipped past jaehyun's lips as his father enunciated the hundreds of reasons why he should be attending this anniversary in the middle of important businessmen from the automobile sector and with the businessman that was slowly stealing his position as a leader in the sector.

one minute, two minutes, three, and soon his father had rambled for ten minutes straight with no intentions to stop himself.

"okay!" jaehyun interrupted his father, fed up of his constant nagging.

"what is it, son?"

"i'll be going to this congress." the ceo finally admitted. "i'll be going and taking ideas from him or whatever."

"that's good, jaehyun." the father spoke, and jaehyun swears he could hear him smile on the other side of the line. "and don't forget to find yourself someone you trust to play as your secretary."

"why?" the ceo asked, kind of weirded out by the request considering that his father had always been the one to say that secretaries were bad and could end up jeopardizing his business.

"because ceos are expected to have secretaries." he explained. "and this way, they will be able to get closer with nakamoto's secretary and surely bring you more information on his business."

jaehyun hummed in agreement at his father's words, letting him continue his rambling on what could happen at the congress.

but at that point, jaehyun wasn't paying attention to what was being said. instead, he was sulking, slowling coming to the realisation that he would need to face and talk to this asshole of a ceo that was stealing his place on top of the automobile podium, and even more that he would need to find himself a secretary for that.

☏

"hi, i'm here." the secretary announced, pushing open the door of his and yuta's office with his hip, making sure not to wrinkle the expensive tuxedo he was holding.

"oh, taeyong!" yuta lifted his head from his computer. "i thought i would never see you."

"there was so much traffic so early in the morning..." taeyong explained, neatly placing the tuxedo on the coat hanger to make sure it wouldn't wrinkle. "but anyway, i got your tuxedo. it's all nice and clean for the congress."

once the piece of clothing was secured on the hanger, the secretary turned on his heels, facing his boss just in time to see him yawning without placing his hand in front of his mouth.

"someone had a short night..." he chuckled heading towards his desk.

"yeah." yuta nodded. "my date was chaotic."

"oh really?" taeyong raised a brow, plopping himself on his swivel chair and opening his computer only to receive a load of emails.

"i had never seen such a megalomaniac as he was. the guy told me about himself for the whole night. didn't even ask me one question about myself." yuta explained. "i'm not even sure he knows i am the ceo of nakamotors."

"shame. he was cute." taeyong spoke, his eyes scanning over the dozens of emails he had received.

"cuteness doesn't make everything." yuta sighed. "and god, i swear this one was the last one."

"you already said that the past three times." the secretary let out, glancing at his boss for a second.

"i know. but this time it's for real." yuta assured. "i'm deleting all the dating apps i installed and focusing on making myself happy without searching for someone. i'll never find that wagyu beef cutie anyway, and he's the one i was interested in from the start."

taeyong sighed at those words, remembering how yuta had been desperately trying to find on dating apps a cute guy that he had met over a meal which had consisted in a piece of wagyu beef. "if you say so."

there was a short silence between the two boys, the only noise breaking it being the typing of taeyong's hands on the keyboard to respond to all of the messages he had first thing in the morning.

"what about you, taeyong?" yuta asked after a while, spinning himself on his swivel chair like a child.

"what about me?" the secretary repeated, keeping his eyes focused on his screen.

"your dates?"

taeyong didn't answer right away, first taking the time to answer to the supplier that had reached him concerning a supply problem. "i didn't go on any dates ever since that guy ended what had not even started." taeyong explained.

"woah, but that was months ago!" yuta exclaimed, remembering taeyong showing up one morning in the same clothes as the day before after spending the night at one of his dates' place. and he could also remember the way this guy had dumped taeyong over text before they even had gotten together. something about not feeling this 'crazy attraction'.

"yeah, well, i'd rather not end up with someone as rotten as people are in this world." taeyong shrugged.

"point taken." yuta nodded, finally stopping to spin on his chair like he was a tornado and focusing back on his work – or in other words, the speech he had been trying to finish for god knows how long. "it seems like all of the good ones are already taken, and only the worst are left."

"yeah." taeyong hummed in agreement already not listening to the ceo anymore.

"all of the assholes, the liars, the megalomaniacs, the cheaters, the corrupted, the toxics and i'm surely forgetting about many others..."

taeyong didn't bother answering to that, knowing that yuta was a chatty type of guy that could never shut up, and that could talk to himself for hours before getting bored. the guy didn't even need an interlocutor to have a conversation, he often eneded up having long conversations out loud with himself without getting bored of it. so, the secretary guessed that this was going to be one of those long monologues again, and that he could go back to focusing on his work fully to make sure everything was ready for the congress that would be held three days from now.

"imagine if one of the other old-ass ceos of the congress came to get interested in me and asked me out?" yuta asked, laughing loudly at the thought of it.

"i think all of those old-ass ceos are taken by young people who are too greedy for money to care about love." taeyong replied flatly.

"well, if they are all taken by such people, why am i not?" yuta raised a brow. "i am not only rich, but young and handsome as well!"

"you want to know why?" taeyong diverted his eyes from his screen to stare at his ceo. "because you care about love and you don't return the advances made by people like those."

yuta stayed silent for a second, processing the words taeyong had just said.

"you're not wrong about that." he nodded after a while. "but is it a bad decision from my part? what would you have done if you were me?"

taeyong heaved out a sigh, selecting a whole bunch of emails before collectively moving them to the trashcan – a bit like he had decided to treat the rotten people he had dates with. "i would have done the same. i care too much about what my future partner can bring me to take the first one that comes."

"you're selective, i see." yuta nodded. "perhaps a bit too much..."

"yeah, well..."

the secretary plopped his elbow on the table, resting his cheek against his palm as he stared into the void for a few seconds. "...it will take the time it will take... but at least i know that i won't end up with one of those rotten people."