Business Partners | A Novel ❖

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Work was swamped.

Over the past three days, Seonghwa had felt like there was not a single moment to take even a breath to himself. Between darting out into different parts of the city for meetings, and rushing back to the office to work on proposals and prepare ahead as the meetings got tougher and higher profile, Seonghwa was running on empty.

But alas, as he strode back into the office with two armfuls of reports and proposals, before he'd even made it to his desk, he looked up to see his boss striding briskly from his office towards him.

'Park. Eleven o'clock has been brought forward. We need to leave now.'

Mr. Kang's Korean flowed with urgency, and made Seonghwa's stomach feel light. He plonked his stacks of papers down on his already swamped desk and allowed himself one half of a split second to gaze longingly at his chair - His feet hurt to the point where he couldn't even feel them.

In a swift exchange, the moment Seonghwa's papers hit his desk, Mr. Kang made it to him and they both made their way towards the elevators.

'For you,' his boss said, handing him a file of papers to review in the car, and; much to Seonghwa's relief; a coffee.

He accepted it like a divine gift, flashing his boss the most appreciative look he could muster.

But as he eyes fell upon him, he realised that he wasn't the only person who was beginning to tire. Mr. Kang's eyes were filled with exhaustion, and Seonghwa thought that up close, he could see foundation under his eyes, most likely hiding dark circles. He had been working far longer hours and far higher profile tasks these past days, and Seonghwa could only imagine that how exhausted he was feeling, his boss felt it worse.

~~~

'I have had the secretary bring our other meetings forward today so we don't waste time going in between the office,' Mr. Kang said as they got in the back of the car, and the driver pulled out.

Seonghwa nodded, taking a long sip of his coffee, before opening the file in his hands and beginning familiarising himself with the content.

But as he did, he found his own work...

He looked up at his boss, a confused expression on his face. 'What's this?' he asked, digging through the other pages in the thought that perhaps it had only been the front page, and there had been a mistake.

But no. It was his entire proposal.

He turned his gaze to see his boss looking at him with a slightly amused, and perhaps even proud expression on his face. He shrugged, containing his smirk. 'Yes, I read your work. It's good. I've decided to go with it.'

Seonghwa's jaw dropped. 'Y-you read... my work...?'

Mr. Kang looked him up and down, before facing the front, sipping his black coffee. All he did was nod, before glancing out the window.

And Seonghwa was almost rendered speechless. 'I- wait... did you notify them of the change in proposal?'

His boss shook his head, still gazing at the city flying fast. 'I will not have people call us like dogs. The shift in time was a power show. This will put him on his ass, and he'll be flying blind.'