office affairs | markhyuck

20

the next day haechan was very excited for his and mark's date. he couldn't sit still, thinking about it the whole time.

"haechan-ah are you alright?" ten asked him, seemingly a bit concerned. haechan nodded and asked in confusion "yes, hyung. why are you asking?"

"i don't know. you just seem very jittery right now so i thought i might ask." ten said. suddenly taeyong chirped in and questioned "ask what?" as he turned around in his seat to look at the two men.

"nothing hyung." ten waved his hand in dismissal. the other just looked at the two, his eyebrows raised in suspicion.

"can you not talk? some people are trying to work here. i can't concentrate." sicheng chirped in, obviously annoyed as he was sitting right next to ten. the latter ruffled sicheng's hair and laughed.

"alright mr. grumpy." he said and then added something in chinese so haechan had no idea what he said. sicheng gave ten a weak smile and replied in korean "well, good for him then." before returning his eyes to the screen of his computer.

"you should go as well now." taeyong said to haechan. said man hummed a 'mhm' before returning to his own seat.

he only had moved to ten and sichengs desk because there was no work for him to do at all. mark had told him this morning he would take all calls coming in and since there hadn't been any meetings or events, haechan literally had free time.

suddenly he got a call which was very weird since all calls to mark got automatically sent through to the mans office. he picked up nonetheless.

"hello, this is lee haechan. i'm mr. lee's secretary. how can i help you?" he introduced himself with his customer voice.
"uhm, hello. i'm akira, you might remember me." the woman introduced herself. haechan's eyes widened in surprise as he heard the voice.

"of course i remember you, akira. do you want me to send you through to talk to mr. lee?" haechan asked.

"actually no. i wanted to talk to you, haechan. i can call you haechan right?" the japanese woman said.

"sure, you can. are you alright?" he responded, trying his hardest to not show how curious he was.

"you might've heard, my dad died. i'm in japan right now, maybe mark has told you." she spoke. her voice sounded hoarse, like she had been crying for a while before making the call. haechan gulped as he realised this was more than likely what happened.

"he mentioned it. i hope that was okay for you?" haechan said, the last sentence being more of a question.

"yes, don't worry. anyway i wanted to inform you that i'll be staying in japan for now. my mother needs me and i'll have a lot of stuff to do after-" her breath hitched but she took a deep breath "after the funeral. would you be so kind to tell mark? i really don't know if i can talk to him right now."
"of course, miss. but i think he would like to talk to you also. not rushing you, please take all the time you need but i think mark is-" haechan stopped in hesitation but then continued "he will be able to give you the closure both of you probably need."

akira seemed to understand the meaning behind haechan's words as she said "i'll make sure to talk to him as soon as i feel comfortable. thanks a lot haechan. i know you're more than just mark's secretary and i also know you make him really happy."

haechan smiled but then realised that akira wasn't able to see that so he responded "i'm happy to hear you think that way. i hope you'll be alright and i'm very sorry for your loss."
"again thank you. maybe we'll meet again someday." she said. even though haechan was sure that she was completely sincere he also knew that it was very unlikely that the two would meet again. he thanked her nonetheless and then the two bid their goodbyes before akira hung up.