Bond Made in Hell || A TAEJIN STORY || Arranged Marriage

35

Hoseok

It's been a week since Jin (as in Kim Seokjin, my boss) hasn't shown up at work, and something is definitely up.

How do I know?

Well, apart from the absence of Mr Kim Seokjin, there is also the impeccably gloomy look Mr Jeon Jungkook, my second boss (I don't really consider him my boss, y'know, I'm pretty much loyal to my boss) carries around with him these days. It's not the kind of look you carry around on a rainy day, or when you're feeling a little under the weather. No, that kind of look is only carried about by men (or women, but mostly men) with broken hearts.

I feel a little sorry for him, but I can't help feeling he was the cause of Mr Kim's disappearance (my Mr Kim) and the anger often overtakes the sympathy. I think he's noticed me giving him the evil eye once or twice, because he hardly ever calls me to his office any more, like he used to. It's a pity.

And yet, Mr Kim Seokjin's things are still sitting in the office- I know because I've been in there once or twice on my own, in secret. I would have expected them to have been moved out by now, but they haven't, surprisingly. What is also surprising is that they always remain clean, not a speck of dust on the brown briefcase Mr Kim carries or the files lying inside it. Which is certainly strange, because nobody ever actually cleans that office, let alone carefully dust off and wipe every single file, folder and briefcase.

Mr Jeon is quiet, too. Unusually quiet. He was a very lively, jokey sort of man before, even more so when Mr Kim Seokjin arrived (as Min Yoongi tells me. There he is, standing at the door and asking me if I want to go get some vanilla ice-cream. Of course I'm not going to have vanilla ice cream. I only like mint chocolate ice cream. As a matter of fact, I love it.)

But these days, he...

'What are you thinking about standing there all by yourself, Hobi-ah?' Yoongi rudely interrupts my thoughts. 'I asked, do you want to go out and get some ice-cream? It's a hot day.'

'Aren't we supposed to work while we're in office?' I reply, tartly.

'Yes, but it's break-time,' Yoongi replies, innocently. 'Break started half an hour ago. In fact, it's almost about to get over.'

'What the- why didn't you tell me?' I let out an aggravated noise and bound towards the door. 'Come on, now, will you?'

Yoongi turns around and follows me out. 'You're cute when you get angry,' he says, sounding highly amused.

'Well, at least it's better than sounding like a damn cat!' I snarl back, not in the mood for his smart remarks.

'I'm not a cat,' Yoongi whines. 'I don't know why you guys keep saying that. Mr Kim- he's the only one who doesn't say that. He understands me. Where is Mr Kim, anyway? I miss him.'

'Fat lot it's your business,' I snap.

'Well, it may not be mine,' Yoongi replies. 'But it's got to be a bit of yours. I mean, he was your boss for a long, long time, wasn't he? Surely you miss him more than I do.'

'I don't know where he is, Yoongi,' I say, exasperatedly. 'If I knew I'd....I'd know, wouldn't I? Maybe he's ill. Maybe he's gone on a vacation. Maybe he had a spat with Jungkook-'

'Jungkook?' Someone slithers up to us out of the shadows, and it's Namjoon, flashing us his regular dimpled smile. 'That's not how you address your boss, Jung Hoseok.'

'Yeah, whatever,' I say, crossly. 'You coming for ice cream?'

'You sound like you're going to kill yourself, not go get ice cream,' Namjoon says, laughing, as he joins us. 'What was it you said about Jungkook just now?'