sicheng couldn't feel more relieved than when him and jaehyun walked across the main doors of nakamotors' headquarters, surrounded by other businessmen who were making their way back home after a long and tiring congress.

it was almost 7pm, and the ceo of nakamotors had pronounced a while ago his thanks in a last speech – which was as pompous and arrogant as the many others he had had during the day, by the way. and so, after long hours of networking and business-talks, all the businessmen and their secretaries were on their way back home before going back to their usual routine the next day.

jaehyun and him were no exception to that, the two of them patiently waiting for the valet to bring them back their car in front of the entrance. honestly, sicheng wanted nothing more right now than to slouch on the car seat and stop pretending like he had confidential documents stuffed up his ass for the sake of jaehyun's corporate image.

"here you are, sir." the valet declared as he parked the luxurious car right in front of them.

"thank you." jaehyun mumbled, immediately getting inside the car and making sure that sicheng was doing so too.

and as the two of them were comfortably sat in the car with their seatbelts fastened, jaehyun started the car and drove them away, back towards more familiar landscapes.

"oh, god..." sicheng let out, letting himself exhale loudly while he slouched against the leather seats. "what a long day..."

"it's barely even seven." jaehyun commented, checking the time on his expensive watch. "you were still working at eleven yesterday."

"sure, but i was doing something that i liked doing, and something that i knew how to do." the chinese male explained. "today was a full day of pretending like i'm someone i'm not in an environment i'm absolutely not comfortable in."

jaehyun simply hummed at sicheng's words, using his right hand to shift gears and make the engine of the car roar pleasantly as they sped up on the highway.

the two males stayed silent of a while, jaehyun enjoying the sound of his car as he gained his speed while sicheng rested against the expensive leather of jaehyun's car seats, eyes closed in an attempt to get a bit of sleep during the 30-minute journey that was remaining until they reached jung corporation's headquarters.

"what's your address?" jaehyun asked after a while, startling sicheng who had almost fallen asleep, cradled by the smooth movements of the car.

"mmh?" the chinese male mumbled, opening an eye and looking at the ceo who was driving.

"what is your address? so that i can drop you back to your house." jaehyun repeated his question.

"i-it's fine, you can drop me at the headquarters of your company." sicheng answered, surprised by the question. "i don't want to lengthen your journey."

"you're half asleep right now, i better drop you off directly at your house if i don't want to find out you were run over by a car in tomorrow's newspaper." jaehyun explained, diverting his eyes from the road to glance at sicheng – who looked effectively like he would pass out anytime soon.

"but- "

"just type your address in the gps for god's sake!" jaehyun tsked, grabbing his phone that was placed in the compartment between the two front seats and throwing it on sicheng's lap.

the chinese male's eyes widened as he caught the phone, mumbling a small 'okay' before opening the device.

"t-there's a password..." sicheng stated, showing the locked phone to its owner.

"9.7.0.2.1.4." jaehyun replied simply, not diverting his eyes from the road.

however, after a few seconds, he realised that sicheng hadn't moved an inch in his peripheral view.

"what?" he asked, looking at the chinese male with furrowed brows.

"is it your birthdate?" sicheng asked in disbelief.

"yeah, why?" jaehyun questioned, not understanding sicheng's bewilderment. half of the population had their birthdate as their phone code.

"you're like a super important ceo and you could have super mega important files on your phone, and they're protected by nothing but your birthdate?" the engineer asked as if jaehyun was crazy. "even a kindergarten student could crack your code."

"for your information, mister hackerman, this is my personal phone, and not a business phone..."jaehyun stated. "...which means that there is nothing confidential in here, so i don't care whether a kindergarten student cracks my code or not."

judging by jaehyun's tone, which became more menacing with each word he spoke, sicheng guessed it would be better to stop talking to this businessman like he was his pal, because it could end up with bad consequences judging by how powerless he was next to this man.

"s-sorry, it just got out, i- "

"it's okay." jaehyun sighed. "just write your address."

sicheng hummed, opening the device and looking for the navigation application so that he could put the gps.

however, before he could write his address fully, he was interrupted by his own phone ringing.

looking down at the device on his lap, his eyes widened slightly when he realised who was calling him right now.

"c-can i take the call? it's important." he asked the ceo who had gotten back to looking at the road.

"yeah, sure." jaehyun nodded simply, glancing to the side as sicheng slid his finger on the screen to take the call.

"hello."

jaehyun didn't pay much attention to what was being said during the call sicheng was having. to be completely honest, he didn't care much about what could be happening in sicheng's life, and he was driving, so he better be concentrated on his surroundings and on the road rather than on sicheng's phone call. but as much as he tried not to pay attention to it, he couldn't help but notice the way sicheng was flinching and lowering the volume of the call every once in a while. and he couldn't help but hear the way the person on the other side of the call seemed to be scolding sicheng pretty loudly, and in a not-so-decent way. and it didn't seem like sicheng could defend him properly as his responses were mainly mono-syllabic and sounding everything but firm and sure.

the call ended after a few minutes, and judging by the way the chinese male had kept his phone against his ear seconds after the yelling had stopped, he probably hadn't been the one to hang up.

jaehyun glanced at the chinese male as he slowly placed his phone back on his lap, his eyes staring at nothing through the windshield.

"sicheng?" the ceo called, making the engineer jump slightly on his seat before diverting his attention to him.

"y-yes?" he stuttered.

"the address."

the chinese male looked at jaehyun before staring at his lap on which jaehyun's phone was still switched on, displaying the navigator app. "o-oh, yeah..."

that being said, sicheng typed in an address quickly on the phone and made the itinerary appear on the car's small screen, giving jaehyun the right directions.

the remaining of the ride was silent. sicheng seemed lost in another world, halfway between consciousness and dreamland, and jaehyun was simply concentrated on the road in front of him, being more and more cautious as the moon appeared in the darkened sky.

when the gps announced that they were arriving in three minutes, jaehyun decided to break the comfortable silence that had taken over the car. sicheng had woken up already, but he was silently looking at the landscape outside the window.

"so... i would need you to be my secretary again..." jaehyun started off slowly, glancing at sicheng to study his reaction. "you know? for thursday's meeting."

"i'm not a secretary." sicheng answered simply.

"to nakamoto's eyes, you are. which is why i need you again." jaehyun replied simply.

as sicheng didn't answer immediately, jaehyun spoke again, hoping to convince him.

"it will be just for the afternoon. i'll pick you up and drop you off wherever you'd like. and i can pay you, if that's the problem." he explained, looking at the chinese male.

"mmh..." sicheng hummed simply.

"so... would you mind being my secretary again?"

the chinese male seemed to think for a few seconds. "yeah, okay. i'll... i'll text you the details. you gave me your business card, so i have your number."

"perfect." jaehyun said, a small smile creeping on his face after asking this question that had bugged him for most of their way back home.

still following the gps, jaehyun took a right turn and parked as it was written on the screen.

"thank you for the ride." sicheng stated, sounding super tired.

"do you live here?" jaehyun asked, his brows furrowing as he looked at the place – which looked more like an industrial zone rather than a residential one.

"no, i..." sicheng sighed as he opened the door and hopped off the car. "i had my boss on the phone and... and he's going to fire me if i don't finish what i was supposed to do so... so, yeah, i have to work for a while."

"oh..." jaehyun nodded. "so, it was your boss on the phone." he stated, recalling hearing bits of sicheng's conversation over the phone a while ago.

"yeah." sicheng nodded. "well, i better go. thank you for the ride and... see you on thursday, i guess."

jaehyun nodded. "see you on thrusday."

sicheng closed the door of the car before crossing the road on which jaehyun had parked. the ceo started the car, staring at the chinese male until he had disappeared behind the heavy doors on which the name 'nano electronics' was printed.

and once he was sure that sicheng was inside, he drove away.

☏

"day+1 after the congress. how are we feeling?" yuta questioned, standing in front of the bay window of his office, his arms open wide as if he dominated the world. "taeyong, how are we feeling?" the ceo repeated, glancing over his shoulder at his secretary who hadn't answered to his previous question.

and for what?

taeyong had his chin resting on top of his palm, his elbow on the glass desk and his eyes lost in the void. and if that wasn't already enough, the dreamy gaze that had taken over his eyes ended up convincing yuta that he hadn't heard anything that had just been said.

"lovestruck, of course." yuta rolled his eyes with a sigh before heading back to his own desk and sitting down on the swivel chair. "did you get laid by someone yesterday night? or are you still dreaming of getting laid by my rival?"

"i-i wasn't thinking about mister jung!" taeyong was quick to retort, his cheeks as red as cherries. "and i didn't get laid, no."

the ceo huffed, raising a brow at his secretary. "i never mentioned mister jung, though." he stated. "do you perhaps have something to say about him?"

"n-no, i don't." the secretary cut the conversation short, tapping his cheeks a few times in an attempt to make them go back to a normal colour again.

yuta could only chuckle at his secretary's antics, not needing to push the conversation further to know exactly what was going on through his mind. taeyong was as readable as an open-book.

"okay, so, onto more serious topics." yuta declared, opening a few tabs on his computer. "what about the feedback of the congress? do we have any news?"

"the data study team is still working on collecting the data, but we'll surely be receiving them in the afternoon." taeyong explained professionally.

"great." yuta nodded. "and did you receive any calls from other ceos or workers of the automobile industry?"

"nothing for the moment." taeyong shook his head. "but it's barely half past ten; i expect the first calls just before lunch and in the afternoon as well."

"okay." the ceo hummed, making himself spin on his swivel chair at a slow pace. "and what's the schedule of the day?"

taeyong let his right hand find the mouse of his computer to click on the screen and make yuta and his timetables appear.

"it will be pretty calm." the secretary announced, reading the two tables with ease. "there's a small advertising innovation committee right after lunch with the marketing department. at four, you have a video conference with the new supplier... and lastly, from five to six, the press is coming to take their marks for next week's interview."

"nothing this morning?" yuta questioned, his brow raised in surprise.

"huh..." taeyong double-checked the timetables. "well, i'm in charge of making sure the disassembly of yesterday's congress is going well, but you are free all morning."

yuta heave out an annoyed sigh. "i thought being a ceo was hard... why does it seem like i'm unemployed?"

"being a ceo isn't necessarily hard. but becoming one – and most a successful one – is very hard."taeyong explained.

"yeah... and now that i succeeded everything seems easy." the ceo shrugged. "but that's shit. life isn't like that. succeeding something hard doesn't allow you to have everything in a snap of fingers after. normally, once a first obstacle is overcome, another emerges, creating a new and probably harder challenge."

"i personally don't think everything has been easy for you since you became a ceo." taeyong stated, making the ceo face him with a confused face.

"really? how?" yuta asked sceptically.

"well...." the secretary thought for a few seconds. "just yesterday, you were complaining that you hated acting like an arrogant asshole in front of everyone."

"this doesn't really make it hard for me to be a ceo." yuta retorted, recalling his words of the past day.

"it sure doesn't now, but maybe that in a while, needing to pretend to be someone you're not will become an obstacle." taeyong explained.

the ceo stayed silent, processing his secretary's words.

taeyong was right. acting arrogant and pompous may not be hard for him today, but this didn't mean it wouldn't become harder for him in the future.

maybe he would get closer with another businessman and feel the need to act natural in front of them, revealing that he is nothing but a fragile boy hidden under a bitchy carapace. and in this business universe where the weaknesses of one make the strengths of the others, his secret being revealed would sign the end of his reign.

or maybe, pretending to be someone he is not too much would make him become like that, and so, yuta could lose all of his sanity and principles to become someone he despises, and someone that others would want to exterminate.

yeah, taeyong was very right. this carapace may not be bothersome right now, but it may become a problem in a few years of time.

"do you think other successful ceos are like me?" yuta asked after a long silence during which taeyong had gotten back to work, opening the various emails he has received and answering professionally to the questions he may have been asked.

"like you?" taeyong repeated, his eyes still focused on his screen.

"yeah." yuta nodded, turning himself on his swivel chair so that he was seated facing the bay window and that he could admire the view. "pretending to be someone they aren't."

"well..." taeyong diverted his eyes from his screen to look at the troubled ceo. "i believe there are two types of ceos. those like you, who worked their asses out to get where they are now, and who truly revolutionised the industry to get their position."

"and the other type?" yuta raised a brow, looking back into taeyong's eyes. "the other type are people who inherited from their business thanks to the success of their predecessors. they did nothing but be born in the right family and copy what their ancestors have done. and this type of ceos – which represents almost every ceo – do not pretend like there are arrogant bitches, because they are naturally bitches." taeyong finished his little speech, leaving yuta dumbfounded. "so, to answer your question, i don't think other ceos are like you, because they didn't work as hard as you did to become ceos."

yuta didn't answer immediately, keeping his mouth shut and letting his thoughts run wild as he diverted his eyes to the view once again.

taeyong always knew how to talk to him and make him feel better, and yuta sincerely respected that. he was glad that he had taken him as a secretary, and not one of the chicks proposed by the secretary agency that seemed too interested by yuta to work well.

"so... if i follow you reasoning, this means that mister jung is a bitch by nature..." yuta hummed, slowly understanding better the interactions he had had the day before with a variety of businessmen.

and at his desk, taeyong had frozen as the ceo of jung corporation was mentioned, his fingers brushing lightly against the keys of the keyboard on which he had previously been typing rapidly.

"i-i..." the secretary stuttered, the fluttering of his heart somehow preventing him to continue speaking.

"did you say something?" yuta questioned, facing taeyong whom he thought he heard speaking.

"t-there can be exceptions to that rule." taeyong explained. "like... hard-working people who became ceos and are bitches by nature. and... also people who inherited from their company but are very humble and nice people. it's very rare, but it's possible. a-and... i-i believe mister jung is an exception to that rule."

his eyes focused on his secretary, yuta raised a curious brow as a smirk slowly appeared on his face.

"wow, okay..." he chuckled. "you're in deep for my rival, i get it."

"i..." taeyong stopped himself before he could go futher, knowing very well that there was no point hiding it, because it was as clear as day for yuta that his secretary had the hots for jung jaehyun. "yeah..." taeyong sighed. "i'm in so deep..."