bored.

there was no word more appropriate to describe how sicheng was feeling at the moment.

after hours of standing by jaehyun's side and following him like a lost puppy as the ceo went from business talk to business talk, sicheng could affirm that he had reached a point of boredom that was beyond limits. at that point, the chinese male was convinced he would be happier sitting in front of an annoying ass teacher making a lecture on trolley wheels – surely because at least, he would be seated.

"it was a pleasure chatting with you mister jung." the old businessman jaehyun was talking to declared, causing a wave of hope to take over sicheng, only to make him realise that the past similar waves of hope had transformed into hell since jaehyun always seemed to find someone else to talk to.

"the pleasure was mine." jaehyun bowed politely as the other male walked away, leaving jaehyun and sicheng on their own – but the latter knew it wouldn't last more than a minute.

however, it seemed like sicheng was wrong this time as jaehyun checked his watch before his eyes fell on sicheng and widened in realisation.

"come here." the ceo declared, grabbing a fistful of sicheng's sleeve and dragging the chinese male with him to god knows where – and hopefully not to another business talk.

it seemed like the gods above had heard sicheng's silent prayers, because this time, jaehyun didn't go in the direction of a nth collaborator or businessman, but instead, brought the two of them in the furthest corner of the room, far from everyone's ears.

jaehyun then let go of sicheng's sleeve and crossed his arms over his chest, looking at his fake secretary with a brow raised and a scowl.

"what?" the chinese male asked, looking down at his clothes and ironing them quickly with his hands.

"what was that a while ago?" jaehyun asked with menacing eyes and a tone as cold as ice.

"a while ago..." sicheng repeated, his brows automatically furrowing. "you might want to be more specific, because we talked to so many businessmen that- "

"with nakamoto."

sicheng's body suddenly froze as he heard the cocky ceo's name being pronounced.

oh, he knew exactly why he had been dragged in such a far corner now. he knew why he was standing the furthest away from the crowd facing a mad angry jaehyun.

and that was because he hadn't been able to keep his tongue to himself and let mister nakamoto act like the pretentious bitch he was.

"o-oh... n-nakamoto..." sicheng stuttered, his hand lifting up to rub his nape as he flashed jaehyun a sheepish smile – which didn't seem to affect him the least judging by his harsh gaze.

"yes, nakamoto." jaehyun repeated. "what do you have to say?"

"w-well..."

what did he have to say?

honestly, a thousand things.

sicheng could already think of many things to answer as to why he had reacted that way. he could go for hours explaining how he despised people who were too full of themselves and who considered that they were better than the rest of the world. he already had dozens of arguments to prove his point and make sure jaehyun understood fully his point of view.

hence, was speaking about such a successful and rich businessman that way a valid solution? probably not.

but did sicheng care about it the slightest? absolutely not.

"he's a bitch. and he is that way because no one has ever dared speaking back to him. but i hate bitches and the temptation of shutting him up was too high for me to stay silent." sicheng responded in all honesty, his eyes fixed into jaehyun's cold ones. even though the chinese male had started his speech with confidence, he couldn't help but feel more and more nervous as he spoke, realising that jaehyun's face hadn't move an inch, and that the ceo still wore his pissed and cold expression.

a few seconds of silence followed sicheng's provocative words, making the fake secretary wonder if he had done the good choice or if he was about to get screamed at and ridiculed in a middle of a congress full of rich businessmen – and let's be honest, judging by jaehyun's absence of surprised reaction, it seemed more like it was going to be the latter, and that the jaehyun-bomb would burst with a few seconds of delay.

"you're right. he's a bitch." jaehyun finally stated after a while, making sicheng's eyes widen in surprise. this definitely wasn't the reaction he expected.

"i'm sorry, what?" the chinese male questioned.

"nakamoto's a bitch. he's bratty, provocative and so full of himself. and as you said, this is because everyone keeps praising him and making him feel like he is superior." jaehyun explained as sicheng's mouth fell open in shock. "but..." the ceo added, his eyes that had previously softened becoming sharp again. "let me remind you that you are MY secretary and that you are supposed to act like a little lamb too scared and impressed to even talk back to your own boss, and let alone other competitors."

sicheng wasn't the least impressed by jaehyun's speech, and the chinese male even snorted at the mention of how a secretary should act like an innocent and frightened lamb. "wait, but i'm not your real secretary."

"to the others' eyes, you are, and this is what's important." jaehyun tackled back.

"well, then you have a reason to fire me publicly and tell the world that you don't want a secretary anymore." sicheng retorted quickly. "because i will certainly not act like it doesn't matter to me when a ceo that doesn't even know how to calculate a partial derivative after five years of studies attacks me or worse, criticises my company."

jaehyun stayed silent for a few seconds once again, looking at sicheng with a brow raised. he let out a small chuckle after a while, shaking his head in desperation.

"nakamoto is right, you are a feisty one." he declared, making sicheng blush slightly. "but you seem to have values and to stick to them. i respect that."

"of course, i have." sicheng nodded. "and honesty is part of them. so, i must admit that pretending to be someone i am not and lying is against my principles, but i let it slide this time for the sake of my job."

"for the sake of your job?" jaehyun questioned, staring at sicheng with interest. in fact, the shy and stuttery technician that he had met the night before seemed to have completely metamorphosed into someone much more mature and interesting.

"as i told you yesterday, i was working until late because my job is on the line. i am doing something that i love, but my boss considers that i am not working fast enough, so he wants to fire me. work is also one of my core values, perhaps more important than honesty as it provides me a lot of pleasure. but since my position is threatened, i accepted to go against another of my core values if it means that i'll be able to be sure i'll stay in the company that i love." the chinese male explained, his eyes sparkling as he mentioned his work. "i am completing my part of the deal as acting like your secretary today, but i expect you to- "

"i will respect my part of the deal, don't worry." jaehyun cut him quickly. "you won't get fired."

sicheng flashed jaehyun a small smile as the ceo reassured him. "thank you."

jaehyun didn't answer, instead, he checked his watch, sighing when he saw what time it was.

"i still need to find a few persons to have a talk. hopefully i'll be able to do that before the conference this afternoon." he explained.

"yeah..." sicheng replied flatly.

not only had the chinese male's tone changed as he realised that he would need to stand by jaehyun's side once again while listening to him talking about uninteresting things, but it also did because after such a conversation, sicheng didn't expect jaehyun to switch back to work-related topics this quick.

it seemed like his company was all jaehyun lived for. during the long ride they had had earlier, sicheng hadn't even managed to get any details about jaehyun's life, and since then, all the boy had talked about was work. just a few moments ago, sicheng had witnessed the first time jaehyun voiced out his opinion – plus, it was to say that yuta was a bitch, so sicheng couldn't help but agree – and they had been able to exchange about personal subject for less than a minute before jaehyun had brought everything back to work.

at that point, sicheng even wondered if this man had a life or if he was a full-time workaholic ceo.

"okay, we're off to eat then." jaehyun continued, glancing at his surroundings before facing his fake-secretary again. "and one last thing."

the chinese male hummed, looking up at his fake-boss, but not rising his expectations too high because he knew he would end up disappointed.

"i think it's very brave of you to talk back to the pompous bitch that is nakamoto. i respect you a lot for that, and i won't prevent you from doing it if it comes to happen again in the future."

☏

"okay, they're all too busy having lunch to wonder where i went, so i guess i can take a few minutes to go over the planning of the conference again to make sure i don't mess anything up." yuta declared, popping the joints of his fingers before unlocking his tablet and looking at his notes.

him and taeyong had hid themselves backstage while the rest of the businessmen attending the congress kept chatting together while having lunch. yuta had ordered a very nice buffet for that, from one of the most renown chefs in order to make a nice impression on the many people that would be there, because it was no secret that food made people happy, and happy people meant for yuta potential collaborators.

"the introduction speech... then the video... its explanations..." the ceo mumbled quickly scrolling through the pages he had typed to recall the unrolling of the conference that would take place later on. "oh, yeah, that... and the questions session... and... taeyong do you think i should make a small insight on our future innovations?" he added, keeping his eyes on the screen and re-reading the small paragraph he had coloured in green as a way to tell he wouldn't say it for sure.

despite how focused he was on the presentation he would have to make, yuta lifted his head a few seconds after asking his secretary a question that remained unanswered from the other male.

"taeyong? what do you...?" he asked, looking at his secretary and stopping himself mid-sentence when he noticed what he was doing. "don't you know his number by heart yet? you've been staring at it since he gave it to you..."

however, taeyong was too busy being in his own dream world to realise yuta's annoyed tone. "he gave me his number..." the secretary spoke, his head lifting so that he could meet eyes with his boss, a wide grin taking over his facial features.

"he gave you his business card, not his number." yuta specified, glancing at the black and silver piece of paper.

"but there's his number on it..." taeyong continued with a heart as light as a feather.

"yes, and there's also his name and the address of jung corporation's headquarters." yuta rolled his eyes. "and he didn't give you personally his number, he gave it to my secretary."

"yeah, you're just salty because he didn't give it to you..." the secretary let out, his eyes still studying in each and every detail the small piece of paper.

the ceo of nakamotors sighed in despair at his secretary's actions.

"can't you see that this man doesn't care about anything but his business?" he asked with a brow raised.

"he doesn't, he's just very busy and hardworking." taeyong assured, causing yuta to groan out of frustration.

"the second i saw you in his arms, i knew it was going to be the end..." the ceo stated, rubbing his temples. "actually, i knew that the second you said that you would be able to date him."

as those words left yuta's mouth, taeyong's eyes shot up, diverting from the precious black piece of paper and falling into yuta's annoyed ones.

"i-i didn't s-say that!" the secretary was quick to defend himself, his cheeks flaming hot.

"yes, you did." yuta reminded him of their conversation a while ago with a smirk, causing taeyong to flush brighter.

"y-yeah, w-well... at least i didn't throw his secretary heart eyes!" taeyong blurted out, causing yuta's eyes to widen this time.

"excuse me?!" the ceo crossed his arms over his chest, trying to hide the panic that had flashed through his eyes.

"yes, i saw you smiling like a fool and staring at him while we were conversing." taeyong told, feeling relieved now that he had changed the subject and made yuta forget about his and jaehyun's inexistent relationship.

"yes, i tend to smile when talking to people, it makes them more open and more conducive to become allies afterwards." yuta explained very professionally a sentence that he had learnt by heart and didn't miss to speak out each time he could – he knew his weaknesses, and as a good ceo, fought against them the best he could.

"and i believe that when you said you would be very pleased to see him again defending his boss during a meeting it was obviously to make him want to work with you, huh?"

unfortunately, yuta didn't have a catch phrase prepared for such an attack, but it's not like it was something bad right now to be speechless. he was in front of taeyong, his secretary, the person who knew about his strengths, his weaknesses, his happy moments, his sad times, and his secrets. taeyong had already seen him speechless countless of times, and he would see him speechless a lot of times again in the future. so, there was no point in trying to find a strong answer to tackle him back immediately.

and at the same time, would it be truly honest to find something to answer right now when taeyong had very fairly pointed out something true? because yes, it would be a lie to admit that yuta hadn't been intrigued by the seemingly shy and silent secretary with ethereal features which had ended up dissing him as if he was a random person – something that people never dared doing.

as he became a ceo, yuta had done an incredible job on his weak traits, working with the help of multiple psychologists that studied his attitudes and behaviours before giving him possible ways to overcome these traits – or at least make it seem like he didn't have all those weaknesses. and it worked pretty well.

to fight his inability to improvise and act normal in a situation in which he got surprised, the psychologists had advised yuta to always learn his speech by heart to make sure he had everything in mind. and they had also told him to learn some types of catch phrases, including facts about his company or numbered data that would be able to make it seem like he knew his company by heart and like he had an answer to everything and anything.

and to prevent people from asking yuta questions that may destabilize him afterwards, yuta had adopted a very easy strategy; appearing arrogant and making others fear him. him, who usually was someone very friendly and open, interested in others and very acceptant, had to act like a pretentious man for the sake of his business. and it worked well. his boldness had allowed his business to grow at an incredible speed, and everyone respected him for that. he had become like a god of the automobile sector, praised and admired by everyone. and because of that, people tended to act with him as if they all wanted to become one with nakamotors.

yuta was very happy to see where he was now, years after presenting this small and meaningless project in front of an innovation comitee. he was proud of himself and hoped that he would be able to help the world with what he thought about, but sometimes, he questioned himself if this was really the life he wanted.

was going against his nature and acting like a bitch really meaningful for him? or would he rather be unknown among the crowd and be himself fully?

he honestly had no idea, but he knew one thing for sure; he had succeeded in a record-time, and his project would inspire people and be important for the future, which was what mattered to him in the end.

"speechless, huh?" taeyong raised a brow before he poked yuta's side teasingly. "i guess we found you someone, then."

yuta rolled his eyes at taeyong's words, clicking his tongue before glaring at him – even though he couldn't help but smile, making his glare lose all of its seriousness. "i guess we did." he spoke with a shrug.

"look at that!" taeyong chuckled. "you're blaming me for looking at your rival, but you're crushing on your rival's secretary!"

"crushing..." yuta repeated while sharing his head in disbelief. "never too much..."

"well, i'm sorry for that, but i thing it's going to be pretty hard for anything to happen with this boy..."taeyong spoke, ignoring his boss' previous statement. "because judging by how he was annoyed by your arrogant façade, i doubt you'll be able to make him speak to you in another language than curse words."

as his secretary spoke out what was only the truth, yuta couldn't help but think again about the interaction they had had, smiling goofily as he remembered how cute the boy had become as his face had turned red in anger and his cheeks puffed in annoyance before he attacked yuta back. in fact, he came to the realisation that he had liked this a little bit more that he should have.

"you know, taeyong...." yuta sighed. "i hate having to act all arrogant and pretentious for the sake of my business. but as weird as it may seem, i enjoyed doing it in front of sicheng." the ceo continued speaking, his smile never leaving his face. "and i must admit that i would do it again, just to piss him off and see him defend himself like a cute little kitten."