Homosaurus

4

Jaebum couldn't focus on the work in front of him. Despite having pages of reports to write up on his desk, he couldn't get Youngjae out of his head. He had so many questions, so many curiosities, he at least just wanted to talk with him again. But with his limited access to the lab and Jinyoung already wary of him coming so often, he was sure that would be difficult to do.

He couldn't focus on work when his mind was plagued like this though. He needed answers, needed to see Youngjae again. He had no idea how he was gonna do it, but he hoped that annoying his boss enough would allow him to gain the access he needed to pay his little secret a visit.

Jaebum took in a breath as he stood before his boss's door, raising his hand to softly knock on the wood. He reached for the knob, gently opening the door and poking his head in. "Excuse me?"

His boss, Mr.Kim Yugyeom, didn't even look up from the paperwork he was reading as he beckoned Jaebum to enter. "Come in."

"Hi sir..." Jaebum greeted, his voice gaining Yugyeom's attention.

A smile slowly spread across his lips as his eyes settled on Jaebum. The two have worked a long time with one another, they were pretty casual aside from the mandatory honorifics. "Jaebum! How's work coming along."

"Just fine, I'm finishing up a report on the aquatic specimen we found a month or so back." Jaebum replied, walking further into the room with a cheery smile to hopefully rub off a good mood on Yugyeom.

Though, his boss often seemed to be in a good mood, so it wasn't that hard to coerce one out of him. "Nice! And I hear you got a claw cleared too, someone in the lab study department said you'd be the perfect guy to examine it."

"Right, that's my next report..." Jaebum replied, remembering the claw Jinyoung had given him the other day that he had been so interested in, now long forgotten ever since he met Youngjae. "But um... Mr.Kim?"

"Hmm?" Yugyeom hummed as he glanced back down at his work.

Jaebum rocked on his heels, nervously biting on his lip as he gathered the courage to ask for what he really came into the office to request. "Can I ask for access to the lab?"

Yugyeom looked up, setting the pen he was holding down and frowning at Jaebum. "Why? You already had lab time before you went out on the field, I need your reports before I allow you to do anything else."

Jaebum sighed, making up the reasoning as he went along. "Um, well... the claw I was given hadn't been given an age estimation, I think they forgot."

"So just send the claw back." Yugyeom suggested.

Jaebum waved the idea away, focusing on persuading Yugyeom to give him a lab pass. "I can just do it myself though Mr.Kim-"

"There is sensitive work being done in the lab right now, I don't believe it's a good time for you to just pop in." Yugyeom stated firmly, his tone meaning to end the conversation there.

Sensitive work? He had to be referring to Youngjae, what other kind of sensitive work would be going on in the lab? Usually getting lab access was easy if you had solid reasoning, but Jaebum's never been denied it due to sensitive work. Of course Yugyeom knows about Youngjae though, he's keeping the secret too, yet doesn't know that Jaebum already knows about what he was trying to hide. Jaebum was persistent, in this case, refusing to take no for an answer. "Right, I won't disturb them, I just need to get the claw dated and I'll make sure all the other information is there before I leave. Shouldn't take more than a week to do it."

Yugyeom was quiet for a long while, swiveling back and forth in his chair. His gaze never moved from Jaebum until he made his decision, letting a little sigh pass through his lips before reaching into his desk and pulling out a paper with the same digits that Jinyoung had given Jaebum to type into the lock system of the lab a few days ago. "A week Jaebum. That's all you're getting, then your ass is back here writing up your reports."