The office slowly emptied as evening turned into night. One by one the lights in different departments switched off, conversations faded, and the once busy floor settled into silence. Outside the tall windows of the building, Seoul glittered with restless energy, the city alive beneath the quiet corporate towers.
Jungkook barely noticed the passing hours. He sat hunched over his desk with his sleeves pushed up, eyes fixed on the endless columns of numbers glowing on his screen. The thick stack of papers Taehyung had handed him earlier lay scattered across the desk, some already filled with notes and corrections while others still waited to be reviewed.
Hannah had stopped by not long after most people had left. She leaned against the edge of his desk and looked around the nearly empty office before focusing on him again.
"You're still here?" she asked, clearly surprised.
Jungkook did not lift his eyes from the screen. "I have to finish this."
Hannah crossed her arms, glancing at the pile of work in front of him. "You know Mr. Kim probably didn't expect you to actually finish all of that tonight."
Jungkook finally looked up then, determination firm in his expression. "He said end of the day."
Hannah sighed quietly. "The day ended hours ago."
Jungkook shook his head. "I'm not giving him another reason to call me a kid."
She studied him for a moment before smiling faintly and grabbing her bag. "You're stubborn," she said.
Jungkook simply shrugged. "Maybe."
As she left she added softly, "Don't stay too late." But they both knew he would.
After Hannah left, the office grew even quieter. The faint buzz of the ceiling lights and the distant hum of elevators were the only sounds left. Jungkook leaned back briefly to rub his tired eyes before returning to the report. Taehyung's comments replayed in his mind again and again. You relied too heavily on last year's numbers. Your job is to question the data. The criticism irritated him even hours later, but it also pushed him to work harder. He adjusted the projections repeatedly, recalculating figures and reviewing trends until the numbers finally made sense in a way he could stand behind.
Midnight passed without him realizing it. The deep blue of the sky outside the windows slowly darkened further as fatigue settled into his shoulders. His neck ached from leaning toward the screen for too long, yet he refused to stop. By two in the morning the office floor was completely deserted. Only Jungkook remained, sitting beneath the warm light of his desk lamp while the rest of the building slept.
When he finally reached the final section of the report, he exhaled deeply. The finished document stared back at him from the screen. For a moment he simply sat there, letting the quiet satisfaction sink in. He had done it. Mr. Kim would not be able to criticize him now. A faint smile tugged at the corner of his mouth, but the moment the tension faded, exhaustion replaced it. His body suddenly felt heavy, his eyes burning with fatigue. He glanced at the time glowing on the screen. Three thirty in the morning.
The realization made him sigh softly. The metro would not open for hours, and the idea of walking all the way back to his apartment in the cold early morning air sounded miserable. Carefully he saved the report and placed the printed pages into a clean folder. He set it neatly on the corner of his desk where Taehyung would see it immediately. After that he rested his arms on the desk and lowered his head onto them, intending to close his eyes only for a moment. Sleep came almost instantly.
Across the city, Taehyung woke earlier than usual. Pale morning light slipped through the curtains of his penthouse bedroom, casting faint shadows across the quiet room. For a moment he remained still, staring at the ceiling as memories of the previous night slowly returned. Matt's voice, the unfinished moment on the couch, and the quiet confusion in his eyes when Taehyung had pulled away. Taehyung exhaled quietly. If Matt woke before he left, there would be questions. Matt had always been direct, and explaining the hesitation would require answers Taehyung himself was not ready to give.
He slipped out of bed and dressed quietly, careful not to make unnecessary noise. The apartment remained silent as he moved through it. Matt was still asleep in the guest room. Taehyung paused briefly outside the door, listening to the steady rhythm of his breathing from inside. For a moment he considered waking him. But the thought of the conversation that would follow made him hesitate. Instead he turned away. A short note was left beside the coffee machine on the kitchen counter, simple and polite, promising they would talk later. After that he grabbed his coat and left the penthouse.
The morning air outside was cool as he stepped into the waiting car. During the ride to the office he found himself staring out the window more than usual, his thoughts drifting back to the previous afternoon. Jungkook's stubborn expression when he accepted the impossible workload lingered in his mind. Taehyung had expected him to complain or fail. Instead the boy had looked almost determined to prove him wrong.
By the time he arrived at the office building, the sun had only just begun rising over the skyline. The lobby was quiet as he entered and rode the elevator up to his floor. Most of the lights were still off when he stepped out. The early hour left the office unusually calm.
As he walked toward his office, something caught his attention. A single desk lamp was still on. Taehyung slowed slightly when he recognized the desk. Jungkook's.
When he approached, he found the boy slumped forward in his chair, asleep with his head resting on his folded arms beside a neatly organized stack of papers. The completed report lay waiting exactly where Taehyung would see it.
For a moment Taehyung simply stood there, watching him. The stubborn kid had stayed the entire night. He stood there longer than he should have.
The quiet office, the faint glow of the desk lamp, and Jungkook's exhausted figure resting over the desk created a strange heaviness in his chest. The boy looked younger like this, stripped of his stubborn attitude and sharp replies, simply asleep after pushing himself too far.
Taehyung's gaze drifted to the neatly finished report. He did it. A small crease formed between his brows. The guilt settled deeper than he expected. He had given Jungkook that workload deliberately, half out of irritation and half out of curiosity to see if the boy would break. Instead Jungkook had stayed the entire night just to prove him wrong.
And somehow that thought tangled with the one that had been bothering him since last night. The same reason he had stopped with Matt.
Taehyung knew better than this. Jungkook was younger, far younger, reckless and stubborn and irritating in ways that should have kept him at a distance. More importantly, the boy was straight. Taehyung had no right letting his thoughts wander in directions they should never go. Yet the image of Jungkook arguing with him, standing his ground without hesitation, refused to leave his mind.
Taehyung sighed quietly, slipping his coat off his shoulders. He placed it gently over Jungkook's back, careful not to wake him. Then before he could stand there any longer or let his thoughts drift somewhere even more dangerous, he turned away and walked straight into his office.
The quiet of the early morning did not last forever. By the time the first employees began arriving, the office slowly filled again with the familiar sounds of a workday starting. Soft footsteps crossed the floor, chairs rolled back from desks, and quiet greetings passed between coworkers. The gentle bustle gradually built into the usual rhythm of the office.
Jungkook stirred at the sound. For a moment he did not move, his mind still half lost in sleep. His neck felt stiff from the awkward position, and his arms were slightly numb where they had supported his head for hours. As he shifted, something warm slipped slightly from his shoulders.
That was when he realized it. A coat was draped over him. Jungkook blinked slowly, lifting his head and grabbing the fabric instinctively before it could slide to the floor. The material was heavy and smooth beneath his fingers, clearly expensive even without looking at it closely.
His eyes widened slightly. He knew this coat. Even before bringing it closer, he recognized the faint scent clinging to it. It was clean and subtle, something refined that he had noticed before but never paid attention to until now.
Taehyung. Heat crept into Jungkook's face almost immediately. He straightened quickly in his chair, glancing around the office to see if anyone had noticed him sleeping there like an idiot. A few coworkers were already at their desks, quietly starting their day. Thankfully no one seemed to be paying him much attention.
Still, the embarrassment settled heavily in his chest. Jungkook looked down at the coat again. Mr. Kim must have arrived earlier than everyone else. The thought made his stomach twist strangely. He carefully folded the coat in his hands, suddenly very aware that Taehyung had seen him asleep at his desk like that.
Taehyung sat alone in his office, the door closed and the early morning quiet settling around him like a thin layer of pressure. The report Jungkook had finished lay on the corner of his desk, untouched for the moment. Instead of reading it, Taehyung leaned back in his chair, staring at the ceiling as his thoughts wandered somewhere far less productive.
His mind kept returning to the same moment from the night before. Matt leaning closer on the couch, the warmth of his hand, the familiar ease that had always existed between them. There had been nothing new about it. Nothing uncertain either. It was a situation Taehyung had found himself in before, one that had never made him hesitate. And yet he had stopped.
The memory made his jaw tighten slightly. Matt had not pushed him, but the quiet question in his eyes had lingered long after the moment passed. Why? Taehyung already knew the answer, even if he did not want to admit it. 'You stopped because you wanted it to be with someone else.'
The realization sat heavily in his chest. His fingers tapped once against the arm of his chair as he exhaled slowly. The thought alone irritated him more than he cared to admit. Because the person his mind kept drifting toward was the last one it should have chosen.
Jungkook. Younger. Stubborn. Infuriating. And very clearly straight. Taehyung rubbed a hand over his face, letting out a quiet sigh. Of all the possibilities his mind could have wandered toward, it had chosen the worst one.