Pieces | Heejake | Enhypen

Chapter one

"Fifteen minutes had passed, and the guy sitting in front of Jake hadn't stopped scolding him. Jake's head hung low, not only because it lacked strength but also because Jake was well aware that he was at fault.

"Jake!! Are you even listening? Look at me when I'm talking to you," the guy called.

Jake slowly raised his head at the command. "Whoa, what happened to you?" the other party asked, shocked by his employee's appearance: slightly bloodshot eyes with horrifying dark circles, dried and chapped lips that had turned marginally grey. He didn't look as bad last night.

Jake sighed before speaking, "YOU are asking me this?" He asked with annoyance. "You guys left so late last night, do you even know how much time it took me to clean up all of your guy's dirt?"

"No, I don't," the other guy tried to joke, which was absolutely not funny. Jake rolled his eyes and continued his tale, "and even after that, I worked to prepare the presentation, but sadly, I was too tired to finish it," the latter part they both said in unison.

"Come on, Jay, I'll finish it tomorrow, I promise," Jake said in order to bargain.

"I swear to God, Jake, if you weren't my friend, I would have had you kicked out of my team a long time ago. You are really useless sometimes," Jay said.

"What are we going to present today?" he said in frustration, completely stressed out about the situation.

Jake nervously nibbled on his lip, "that... umm," he scratched the back of his head because he couldn't think of any resolve.

Knock, knock, knock. "May I come in?" A young intern who had only joined the team a month ago walked in with Jay's permission.

"Jake, here's the presentation you asked me to edit," he said, handing out a pen drive. Jake looked at him confused, but the other only smiled.

Jay, whose only concern was the presentation, jumped in happiness.

----

The meeting went well, and the presentation was praised by a few. Jake felt guilty knowing that he wasn't the one who had prepared the demonstration, but it had actually been prepared by—

"Thank you so much, Niki," Jake thanked. He was now beholden to the younger for saving his ass from Jay's anger.

"No need for thanks; consider it an apology for last night," Niki said and pursed his lips.

Something triggered inside Jake at the mention of last night. *Thwack* a slap sound rang inside his head, memories from last night crawled back into his mind. Jake zoned out, his eyes focused on nothing.

"Let's go for a massage," Niki said, placing a hand on Jake's shoulder, which snapped Jake back to reality. "I am... fine," he hesitated, not wanting to offend the other.

"I have a lot of work pending," Jake instantly made an excuse. The younger decided not to bother him much, so he just nodded.

Jake subconsciously sighed in relief, but that relief was soon gone with the arrival of Jay. "You are coming," he said and started dragging him by the shoulder. Jake grumbled, but it was of no use.

They were not going to any expensive spa but an arcade shop across the street, owned by Jungwon, one of Jake's friends. He is a permanent member of their Sunday get-together group. Jungwon belonged to a political family, and the shop had been opened with his father's money, but now he was rich on his own.

The arcade shop was working well for him; it was easy money. Since Jungwon was a bit selfish and didn't like to share his money, he worked alone and supervised his shop all on his own.

For that purpose, he had even built a hidden room at the end of his shop. Only he and his friends had access to that room. It was a room with all the luxury and a massage chair, and that's what the three employee friends were targeting.

----

Upon entering, the first thing the visitors heard was a complaint. "How many times do I have to tell you guys not to enter this place in those ugly-ass clothes?" Jungwon, who was on a swivel chair with his legs crossed on a table, said while peeking through his phone.

"Whoa, what happened to you?" he asked, directing the question toward Jake. He then stood up to approach his friends.

Jake just shook his head in response; he looked tired. Anyone could tell that he was forced to be there.

"You look like a decaying corpse," he laughed, and Jay joined in, while Niki stood there uninterested in their unfunny jokes. Jake just scoffed a laugh and proceeded towards Jungwon's room. Now that he was here, he could at least enjoy a good massage.

The group of friends took different seats: Jake claimed the massage chair, Niki was on the beanbag, and Jay flattened his back on Jungwon's bed.

"Beer?" Jungwon asked, taking out a can for himself from the mini-fridge. Jay excitedly nodded, but the other two declined.

Jake, who was enjoying the euphoric palpations, was disturbed by phone vibrations. At first, he ignored it because he didn't want his single body muscle to contract, but then a sudden feeling made him take his phone out of his pocket.

A wave of panic and fear ran through his body when he saw 5 missed calls from M."