#angry shit

“don’t you find it strange that mr lee sangyeon refuses to tell us how our boss even looks like? surely there’s some portrait of him hanging somewhere in the office,” you look at chanhee who was on the verge of spitting his food out in the midst of aggressively complaining. 

you laugh, using your tongue and cleaning the small bits of tomato and lettuce from your teeth, watching sunwoo grab a napkin. you expected him to wipe his mouth before going off on a diss, but he just crumples it in his hand and says whatever he wanted to say.

“i asked him before and he said that we’d gossip about him if we knew who he really was. all i know is that he hasn’t been in the building since his father gave him the law firm.”

“huh?” chanhee’s eyes were wide open and staring at sunwoo upon the new information. “don’t tell me... so he’s just a chaebol who thinks he doesn’t need to work just ‘cause his father owns the company? wha... this guy is really something else...”

you exchange glances with eric, who had been silent alongside you and listening to the conversation. 

“if you google the law firm and his father’s name, only his father’s name comes up,” sunwoo pulls up his phone, mouth still chewing on the last bit of his pasta.

“oh! what’s his name? are there any pictures of him?” chanhee leaned towards the younger, trying to take a look at the phone screen while sunwoo googles the name.

“ah, he’s only been referred to as the son of his father... no pictures of him...” 

chanhee bares his teeth in disappointment, pulling away and returning his attention to his food. 

“what’s the internet good for if we can’t even find the information we need...”

you chuckle, taking a sip from your coffee. 

the last six months you’ve been working here, you’ve been clearing every case with ease. you’ve worked with chanhee, sunwoo and with eric on the latest one, and you’ve won every case you needed to turn up in court for. 

but all those wins were at the expense of your sleep and alone time. 

there was nothing for you to worry about though, mr lee sangyeon has already given you feedback that you were doing well anyway.

but you couldn’t help but wonder: just who is your boss?

you, chanhee, eric and sunwoo entered the company in the same batch six months ago, and since then your boss has not once stepped into the building. what was strange was that nobody else has spoken about him. it almost seemed like every other employee under the law firm was either terrified to even speak of him, or that they were simply clueless. 

you’ve tried digging the information from the colleague sitting next to your cubicle: lee jaehyun. 

but never does he once budge. all he’s ever done when you ask about your phantom boss was shake his head and tell you not to ask anybody else about him. you’ve tried to ask if he was a scary boss or that he’s never even seen him before, but he shooed you away and told you to focus on your cases instead.

the week passes in a flash, with a new case you’ve been working on with chanhee that’s been holding the both of you back in office till late hours was killing you. if it wasn’t for mr lee sangyeon shutting off all the electricity in the office, you and chanhee would’ve probably spent the night there. 

“the both of you are allowed to report to office at 10 am tomorrow. you guys get two hours discount because i know this case is pretty tough. it’s your first business lawsuit, right?”

chanhee’s eyes were rolled back so far in his head that he looked drunk, so you take the initiative to respond by nodding with whatever energy you had left in you. 

“okay. good job for now. go home,” the manager taps on chanhee’s shoulders and jerks him a little. “go home or the both of you are fired!” 

chanhee shoots up at the word “fired”, only bowing in apology before the both of you gets chased out of the office. 

THE NEXT MORNING

“GOOOOOOD MOR--”

“shut the fuck up!” 

you turn your head sharply at sunwoo who hissed at you. he was seated near the entrance of the office, so he was the first person to hear you push open the doors like you were entering heaven.

“well, that’s not very kind of yo--”

“he’s fucking here, you dumbwit!” sunwoo has a finger pressed to his lips and a look of urgency cemented into his face. frankly, he looked like he was in pain. 

eric, who was sitting right next to him, looks at both you and chanhee and shakes his head gently. 

you look around the office, and you notice everybody’s heads were dipped into their laptops and case files. it was so quiet, it’ll be an understatement if you said you could hear a pin drop. 

“i’m sorry, who’s here?” you frown at sunwoo, frowning a little while you remember you didn’t bother wearing a brooch. it wasn’t compulsory, but mr lee sangyeon has mentioned before that it was an office tradition. you note that nobody else has the brooch on besides chanhee and lee jaehyun. 

“oh my god, you’re a fucki--”

“oh!” you hear your manager call out. you and chanhee react to the enthusiastic greeting, and you see your manager walking along the larger offices and around the cubicles where you worked. “the both of you are here! i was beginning to worry you were going to be late.”

mr lee sangyeon stops about two metres before you, hands in his pocket. you notice he has a brooch on his breast pocket, and you don’t remember him ever wearing it. 

“why don’t the two of you settle down for a bit, and around...” he looks at his watch. “ten thirty? meet me outside the CEO’s office.”

you hear chanhee hiccup at the instruction. though you were a lawyer yourself, you take longer than necessary to process the information.

“huh?” you blurt out. you notice sunwoo facepalming in the corner of your eye while your manager had the stiffest smile on his face. “the... the CEO?”

“yes, the CEO.”

you hear chanhee stammer a little bit. “uh... i... did we do anything wrong? are we getting fired? why are we going to the CEO’s of--”

“oh, no! none of that,” your manager bursts into laughter and waves his hand in your faces. “the CEO was just looking through the case files and he thinks this one is going to be tricky. he’s thinking of helping the both of you through it!”

your face doesn’t move, but your eyes turn to look at chanhee who was now standing right next to you.

the ceo hasn’t even been in the damn building since he got the law firm. who does he think he is, thinking of helping us ‘through it’?

“oh, don’t sweat it! he’s not as bad as people say, trust me.”

you force out a weak smile, noticing sunwoo giving you two thumbs-up without smiling. it was as if he was sending you off to your death.

“ohmygod we’re gonna get fired we’re gonna get fired ohmyjesus we’re going to get fired we’regonnagetfi--”

“shut your trap, would you?” you whisper harshly, punching chanhee lightly in his arm. the both of you were standing outside the CEO’s office, the digital clock in the corner of the space displaying 1027.

“mr lee already said we’re not getting fired, so stop freaking out on me!” you urge him to collect himself as you hear the door of your manager’s door click open.

“when you’re inside, just address him with ‘sir’ and mr lee if you’re talking to me, okay?” your manager grins widely at you. you absorb his demeanor, only now realising that he must’ve known that the ceo was going to come into office today. there was no other reason why he chose today to wear the brooch. 

“relax, and just hear him out carefully with whatever he says, okay? the both of you will be fine as long as i’m around.”

you frown to yourself, and you could almost hear chanhee get a whole asthma attack behind you.

‘you’ll be fine as long as i’m around’? is this guy a wolf or vampire or something?

your manager turns and knocks on the frosted glass, and you turn to notice a vague, dark shadow standing inside. 

“come in.”

your manager pushes the door open, and chanhee pushes you to enter the office first.

the first thing you notice was the scent of the space once you were inside. 

there was a light scent that reminded you of the mountains and trees whenever you went hiking. the scent of dew, pine trees and fresh air was the only thing you could smell. 

the next thing you noticed was how incredibly neat and large the office was. you’ve never stepped into this office before, and though mr lee sangyeon’s was right next to this office, it looked like it was easily double the size of his. 

“go easy on them,” your manager’s voice snapped you back to reality. you found yourself standing awkwardly behind the chairs that looked expensive on its own. “don’t scare my newbies, please.”

you hear your manager laugh. your eyes travel from the orientation of the room and it’s black and golden-brown colors to see the man that sent the entire office into complete silence since you’ve stepped in, and you nearly lost your grip on all the files you had in your arm. 

“why?” your boss laughs as he turns around from the shelf behind his desk, placing a file on the surface before looking at you and chanhee. “there’s no reason for them to be scared as long as they haven’t done anything wrong.”

you blink multiple times, forgetting that anybody might’ve thought you had something in your eye if they saw it. your boss looked even younger than your manager, and he wasn’t even in a suit.

he was in a blue blazer with silver buttons, with a button down top underneath and black pants with his hair waxed upwards. had you not known this man was your boss, you would’ve thought he was some random guy who broke into his office. you were expecting someone in his mid thirties or something, so seeing someone barely a few years older than you standing in the office labelled ‘CEO’ was difficult to swallow.

“choi chanhee, right?” he first looks at your friend, fingers mindlessly fiddling with each other behind the files he was holding in his hands. chanhee quickly bows. you observe carefully as his eyes travel from chanhee to you. 

“you... you’re the one who’s closed like, three cases in the six months you were here, right?” he tilts his head while he asks the question. you bow cautiously with your hand over your chest.

“i only let them take up this case because they both stood out to me the most,” your manager pulls out both chairs at the table, gesturing to the both of you to sit. the ceo smiles, turning and leaning his rear against the edge of the table. he looks out the window behind his desk and beside the shelf, watching the city pass by second by second. 

your manager gets the both of you settled in the seats like a parent, and you watch as chanhee tries his best to speak with his eyes. 

your manager shakes his head lightly, only to pat chanhee on his shoulder. 

“don’t you dare scare them!” your manager warns the ceo. he looks over his shoulder and nods without a smile. chanhee looks worriedly at your manager leaving the office, physically uneasy as the door shuts with a click. 

there was a heavy, awkward silence that hung in the air while both you and chanhee watch your ceo stare out of the window. you couldn’t even see his face because all you were looking at were the creases on his back. 

“the first rule i need you two to follow if we are to work together is professionalism,” his voice startles you, but he doesn’t turn around. “meaning that whatever obstacles that come by, we discuss it as a team. the company that filed for this lawsuit, objectively speaking, was in the wrong. it’s highly likely that we’ll lose as the defendant if we make one small mistake.”

you hear chanhee gulp, and if it was loud enough for you to hear, your ceo probably heard it too. 

he finally pushes himself off the desk and turns around, pulling out the chair so he was now sitting facing the both of you. 

his eyes were so focused, so serious, that you realise now why your manager hasn’t said anything about him to any of you newbies. 

he was intimidating and there was a look of sheer determination in him that would’ve scared the balls out of certain people. lee jaehyun was probably one of them. 

your manager must’ve told anybody who has already met him to keep quiet about his intimidating personality. 

but... where the hell has he been the last six months? and was he even qualified to be giving us this speech?

“the second thing i need the both of you to know is that this isn’t going to be an easy case. i’m going to need the both of you to commit to it right now, and if you can’t just be honest. i’m not going to fire you just because you’re worried about losing a difficult case in the first six months you’re working here.”

you purse your lips, confident that you were going to get through this, even if it meant losing. 

chanhee doesn’t agree though.

“actually,” you snap your head to glare at chanhee when he opens his mouth. your ceo leans back in his seat, his face a lack of emotion. “i can’t deny i’m worried that we’re going to lose the case. i agree that there’s a high chance that we might lose as the defense counsel so--”

“are you nuts?” you interrupt him with a low voice. as if your ceo isn’t going to hear it. “so what if we lose the case?”

“i’m sorry, i just--”

“no, it’s fine, i totally understand,” your ceo shakes his head and leans forward again, resting his arms on the surface of the desk and reaching for the case file. “i know how it feels like to lose a case, even when you know it’s difficult to win.”

you snap your head back to the man sitting opposite you with eyes made of steel, completely forgetting that he was your ceo. 

‘i know how it feels’?

“sangyeon hyung told me that you were exhausted yesterday after working on this case all day, so i’m giving you a chance to walk away and trust me and y/n with it.”

you return your attention to chanhee, your head chanting “no no no no no no please no”

but chanhee gives you an apologetic look. 

you sigh and resign to fate, wanting to bury your face in your palms, but the sound of your ceo clicking on a pen prevents you from doing so. 

“alright, i’ll get the details of the case fixed by the end of the day. before you clock out in the evening, do give it a check and inform me if your name is still on the case in the system.”

he scribbles something in the case file and gives chanhee a look that you couldn’t read. no smile, no nod, nothing. 

“if there’re no further questions then you may leave,” he directs the instruction at chanhee. you look at him with begging eyes, telling him not to ditch you alone with this man. 

you should’ve known chanhee was merciless at heart, and you were on the verge of cursing at him when you see him shoot you a cheeky smile when you watch him escape. 

your eyes remain glued to chanhee’s back as he exits the office, and the frosted glass door takes forever to close.

“anything about the glass door that’s so fascinating to you?” 

you turn your neck so fast at his question that you feel a nerve snap. you wince a little at the pain that shoots up your head, but you manage to collect yourself while he looks through the case file that chanhee left behind. 

“i know what you’re thinking,” he looks up at you through his lashes, and you’ve never seen the whites of someone’s eyes so... glaring. “but i’m very sure you don’t need to concern yourself with whatever those questions or thoughts are.”

he closes the case file and leans forward, so much that you felt the need to lean back into your seat. 

“all you need to know is that i’m here to help you with this case, despite the level of difficulty. and i want you to know that i have faith in you. that even if you lose, you would’ve fought a good fight.”

what in the world is he even talking about now?

he doesn’t give you time to let nonsensical thoughts run through your head. all he does was fumble around in his drawers for some blank paper and he furiously types on his computer.

you weren’t sure if you were just overwhelmed by all the questions that you couldn’t even form in your head, or that he just waltzed in here and took over a case that belonged to you and chanhee. either way, you were completely dumbfounded. 

he prints you a case file sheet, and before you could even read what was on it, he speaks again. 

“just follow that sheet and do whatever you need to do to find the information and details. after you’re done, you will submit it back to me and i’ll hand you the next sheet.”

what?

“i’m sorry, wha--”

“did i say you could ask questions?” he looks at you, writing stopped and the tip of the pen still on a piece of paper in the file. you unconsciously shoot him a dirty look at his response, but you don’t realise it yourself because he doesn’t bother giving you a reaction.

“you may return to your working space. have it done by tonight and get out of the office by 8pm. you will report to me tomorrow at 8am, and if you’re late, you’ll be removed from the case.”

8pm was earlier than the recommended end-of-work time.

you open your mouth to protest, not realising that your face has contorted into a mess of anger and completely disbelief. but he looks up at you again, and if his eyes could talk, you swore they said, shut up and get out.

you swallow your pride, sucking a deep breath so hard that you were sure he could hear it. you stand up, give a polite bow, and turn on your heels to leave his office. 

once the door clicks behind you and you make sure your manager was back in his office, you start mouthing long strings of vulgarities, trembling and shaking within your control. 

“motherfucker-- what the fuck--”

you return to your seat opposite chanhee’s, and sunwoo and eric rush over to you at the sight of your silent tantrum.

“what happened? is he as shitty as we predicted him to be?”

you huff and bury your face into your hands, careful not to let your fingers mess up your hair. 

“i should’ve dropped the damn case, ugh,” you groan, not wanting to engage in a gossip session with sunwoo and eric. chanhee shoos them away to let you work on whatever you were told to do, and you did just that. 

to your dismay, this cycle repeats itself for the next two weeks. 

nothing but filling up case file sheets like it was homework, and your boss never once has a conversation about it with you. you were starting to wonder if he was just feeding you worksheets to help him get through the case because there was nearly nothing else you could think of that he could’ve been working on on his own. 

you were more than happy to be working on this case, and though you were given more time to rest at home, you were losing time with your colleagues. on top of that, it’s not like you went to sleep the moment you got home. you worked on it until your eyes couldn’t bear to stay open, and it wasn’t difficult to notice because sunwoo made fun of your eyebags one week after you started filling up case file worksheets. 

you were ready to storm into his office in strong protest one morning, but your manager breaks the unfortunate news to you on a bright, sunny day.

“excuse me?” your mouth hung agape at the new information. “he wants me to what?”

sunwoo, eric and chanhee look up from their desks and watches as you painfully process the instructions. your manager doesn’t do anything besides continue the rest of the message relayed from your ceo.

“there’ll be a Porsche at the entrance of the building in about an hour’s time, so you should have all things case-related with you when you get into the car.”

you couldn’t believe your fucking ears.

not only was he feeding you worksheets, now you had to fix your work schedule around him?

you were huffing as you searched through his shelves for the case-related items, only to realise there was nothing left of it in his office. you couldn’t be bothered wondering where all the materials were, because everything the case needed had been filled up by you, and he’s probably stashed it somewhere waiting to claim the credit for himself. 

chanhee watches you as you gather every file and sheet of paper case-related from your work space, and you don’t bother finishing your coffee before offering it to chanhee. 

“call the fucking police if i don’t text you by dinner please,” you nearly snap at chanhee, filled with frustration and anger. he laughs at your demise, taking a sip from the coffee you barely drank as you drag yourself to leave the office. 

your suitcase was much heavier than usual with all the case files in it, so you were only grateful that the Porsche’s chauffeur was kind enough to help you get the door open. 

“sorry for needing you to get the door open,” you huff, slightly out of breath as the chauffeur returns to the driver’s seat. you pull the seatbelt over your chest and buckle it, patting down the creases of your pants and blazer. 

“oh, no it’s totally normal! we’ve been instructed to help whoever’s getting into the vehicles mr lee send anyway, regardless of the things they are carrying.”

“uh... mr lee? lee sang yeon?” 

“huh?” the driver looks at your through the rear mirror. his eyes light up once he processes your words and chuckles warmly. “oh, no. mr lee sangyeon is the manager of the law firm. i’m talking about mr lee juyeon, the ceo.”

so that’s his name.

“oh,” you mumble to yourself, looking out the window as the car drives away from the building. “lee juyeon... would’ve been more convincing if lee sangyeon was the one who gave those instructions.”

“did you say something?” 

“uh--” you stutter. 

shit. 

“i--”

“are you one of his lawyers who think that he’s mean and cold and unreasonable?” he smiles at you with a look of mischief in his eyes. 

isn’t he?

asshole.

you struggle to read his expression, because all you could think of was the fact that you were on his way to his home office just because he was ‘unable to be in the office today’.

“judging by your silence, i’m guessing you are one of those people.”

you look away, telling yourself to shut up before you say anything horrible and get yourself fired. 

the chauffeur must’ve picked up on your discomfort, and he doesn’t say anything else the rest of the drive. 

the drive was barely ten minutes compared to the near one hour it took you to travel from your apartment to the office. but what was more shocking to you was where this douchebag lived. 

the Porsche stops at a building in an area that you’ve never stepped foot in, for the sole reason that this was the most expensive building in the city. 

you should’ve expected it, but seeing it for yourself and being physically present made it all the more harder to believe it. 

you were so busy looking up at the building in awe from the inside of the car that you don’t notice the chauffeur get the door open, and someone else comes to get your suitcase for you. 

you now notice both the chauffeur and the man who took your suitcase for you had brooches of the same design but different colors on their blazers. 

you follow the man who took your suitcase into the lift lobby, the chandelier that hung way up above your head was the first thing that you took notice of. the walls and floor were black and gold, and everything else in the lift lobby was either silver or bronze. 

you would’ve totally thought this was a hotel if you didn’t know your ceo lived here. 

you stand in awkward silence as the lift ascends to the top floor, and it takes you a moment to realise that the top floor were all penthouses because the lift stops, and the man presses a button before the doors opens directly into someone’s living room. 

your eyes widen in wonder, and for a moment you believed you were in some sightseeing tower. beyond the living room was a whole glass wall that spanned the length of the living room, allowing you to take in the view of the city. 

there were two flights of stairs on both sides as you exit the lift, and you catch a glimpse of the extremely large television screen mounted onto the wall on the left, and the kitchen on the right. 

you could’ve spent the entire time just gawking at the orientation and the view, but the sound of shoes clacking against the marble floor steals your attention away. 

you turn, your footing now adjacent to the first steps of the stairs on both sides, only to see your boss walking down the steps with a phone held to his ear. 

the man who has your suitcase bows, earning a small nod and wave from your ceo. 

huh, the waving is new. 

the man lays your suitcase down by the table that was sitting on huge rug on the floor in the middle of the living room. you walk over, scanning the expensive looking three-set sofa that surrounded the table, the only empty side facing the television that looked more like a theatre screen up close. 

“i understand,” you watch as your ceo pats the man on his back and send him off, attention still on the conversation on the phone. “i look forward to meeting you next month, mr shin. always an honour working with you.”

you turn back, now looking at the table and the sofas, but your eyes naturally follow the light, and you begin walking to the glass window where the city passes by below your feet. cars were the size of ants and humans looked like specks of dust. 

“you know i just got my windows cleaned yesterday.”

you step back, quickly realising that you were so cooped up with staring at the world outside that you pressed your forehead and nose against the surface of the glass, leaving ugly marks on it. your hands fly up to your mouth, your eyes widening at the sight. 

your first instinct was to reach up with your arm and wipe it off, but your boss was suddenly next to you, his grip on your wrist stopping whatever you wanted to do. 

“it’s fine. leave it be, i’ll get someone to wipe it off later.”

he releases his hold on you and walks away. 

you wince quietly to yourself, mentally berating yourself for being so mindless and careless despite being in his (pent)house while he picks up your suitcase and takes out all the case files. 

“i need you to look through the 3rd and 7th piece over and tell me more about the company’s leases and financial bonds,” he looks through the file and leaves it open on the third sheet, laying it flat on the table. “give me a minute.”

you sit on the sofa, your heels making it difficult to walk on the rug. you watch as he takes two steps at a time up the stairs and disappears behind a wall that you assume was a hallway. 

you spent a whole day staring at each piece of worksheet, so you’ve basically memorised everything about the third and seventh sheet he needed you to look at. 

you wonder why he was wearing an all black fit in the comfort of his own home instead. 

within a minute he was rushing back down the stairs, and in his hand was a file you’ve never seen before. there were so many sheets in it that you wonder if it was just torn right out of a book.

but he lays it down next to yours, and everything in it was case-related with information that you’ve never seen before. 

he lets you look through the sheets in his file, and you can’t help to stare at him with utter confusion. he catches you watching him with a perplexed expression and allows you a few moments before everything clicks in your head.

“you’re a fucking lawyer.”