Promise (Ateez au)

Chapter VIII

Stress had begin to form as Yunho walked through the dark hallway of the tall building. It had always been a dream of his to work here and now it was finally happening. Well, sort of. He already got lost trying to find his way to the meeting point. Why would they make it so difficult for new employees to find their way here?

"Jeong Yunho?" He heard a voice from behind him, making him jump and turn around quickly.

"T-that's me." He mentally cursed himself for stuttering. But he was so scared, maybe he was getting fired already for not being on time.

"Follow me." The young man said, while motioning him to follow. Yunho tried to keep a bit of a distance between them, but the blonde decided to slow down so they could walk next to each other.

"It's normal to get lost here. I promise you, everyone gets lost here from time to time, even if you have been working here for years. My name is Hongjoong by the way. I haven't been working here for too long yet but they gave me the order to show you the way and to take care of you so you don't feel too uncomfortable here." The blonde, who Yunho now knew was Hongjoong, explained. They had arrived at the meeting point and there were two other people standing there.

"That is our boss." Hongjoong nudged his head in the direction of one of the men. "Sir, this is Jeong Yunho, our new employee. Do you have something to explain first, or do I tell him about the company while showing him around?"

"Don't ask stupid questions, Kim. You better do this well or I don't have a choice but to reduce your salary for this month. This is your last warning." The cold voice of the other man sounded through the room. Yunho shivered while hearing it, but Hongjoong just rolled his eyes.

"Of course, Sir. I won't 'fuck up' this time." Hongjoong answered back and pulled Yunho with him, not waiting for a response.
"Fuck, he hates me so much." The blonde laughed, still holding Yunho's hand while pulling him through the hallways that were more like a maze.

"Why is this place so difficult to navigate through?" The brunette sighed, not very happy about having to walk so much every day.

"So they won't be able to escape that easily, silly. And you'll get used to the walking. Oh, here we have the lab. Well, one of the labs. There are three more but all research something different. Is it okay if I show you our workplace first? Then we'll continue the tour later on." Hongjoong smiled again and didn't wait on an answer, just pulling Yunho with him wherever he went.
They had to walk down a pair of stairs, making Yunho shiver again by the weird feeling of someone looking at him.

"Don't worry, it are just the cameras. There is extra security here so if one of them breaks out, they'll be quick to catch them. Unless they're very fast, that is. But then they still have a hard time finding the way out." The blonde explained after seeing the worried look on the taller's face.

"Why are you always talking about them breaking out? Does it happen often?" Yunho sounded scared, not wanting to suddenly bump into one of them.

"It doesn't happen often, but it can happen. I've only experienced it once, and it was weakened so much that it wasn't difficult to put it back where it belonged. They do get smarter over time, but I'm sure it'll take them a while to figure out a way to escape again. It's not as if they can communicate with each other." Hongjoong stopped suddenly, making the brunette bump into him.