stapler!au

*

INSPIRED BY:

brojokes@tumblr

reblogged from evilqueenofgallifrey

90 notes

***

"fucking," jae muttered, "get," he shoved the stack of paper into the printer, "in," to no avail, yet again. what a surprise.

"any luck, yet?" he heard his office-mate, brian, absentmindedly ask. the brunette was leaning back in his swively desk chair, idly spinning a stapler around in his hand. "or do you want me to help you again?"

jae ignored him. a few seconds later, the blonde finally succeeded in his struggle to shove the paper into its designated printer slot. "aha!!!" he yelled out. "that's more like it!"

"whioooo!!! jae, i'm so happy for you!" brian said in a mocking way, clapping his hands way too zealously. "i'm so proud!!"

"shut your mouth," the blonde hissed out, moving over to his computer. "you should really be more polite to me... i'm your hyung after all."

"awhhh, poor hyung is sad!" brian called out. "it's okay, hyung, i'll be more polite now."

"sure you will," was the sarcastic reply. and then jae got on his computer to finish up his documents so that he could print them.

*

about an hour later, brian was actually busy working on something. and, of course, jae just had to mess something up again.

"aaagh!!!!" jae was ready to pull out his hair in frustration. "why?!!"

brian looked over at him whilst aligning his stack of papers by tapping them on his desk. "you okay, man?"

jae groaned out and raked his hair out of his face with anxious fingers. his hair fell back into his eyes, of course, but that didn't really matter to him right now. "yeah," he whined out. "i ran out of staples."

brian sighed and beckoned him over. "okay, okay. come here, i'll help you out."

"no way! you'll use this to blackmail me, i know you!!" jae remained at his desk like the stubborn child he was, continuing to rifle through his desk in search of any loose staples. "there's no way you won't use this against me somehow."

brian sighed again, clearly annoyed at jae's childlike behaviour. so he put down the papers he had been working on and grabbed his stapler. then he casually walked over to the blonde's desk and leaned over the anxious man. "oh come on, jae. don't belittle me like that." once jae looked up at him with a scowl on his face, brian pretended to back away with his hands up in mock surrender. "alright, i admit it. i like to make fun of you at times... but it's not like i'm a bad guy!"

"really?" jae asked, his eyebrow rising in fake surprise. "i never thought of that. you're such a good guy! oh my god!!"

brian tutted at him, shaking his head. "that's not how you want to talk to your saviour."

jae pouted and turned his face away. "fine. but you better not rub it in my face or anything."

brian inwardly whooped when his officemate turned back to him, holding out his papers. on the outside, he smirked. "glad you decided to come around." he saw jae scowl and tutted once more. "but i'll only staple them on one condition."

"and there it is," jae sighed. "what is it, brian?"

"well, i'll staple your papers for you... if you let me tell you a joke."

jae sighed again. "fire away my dude."

the brunette straightened up with a smug look on his face. "what did the stapler say to the piece of paper?"

"what?" jae deadpanned."

"i'll hold you together, bro."

and with one swift motion, brian grabbed the papers out of jae's hands, stapling them together. jae paled considerably once he saw what brian had done. "b-- brian..."

as soon as brian looked up, he knew he'd fucked something up. "what is it, jae?" he asked with a shaky voice, bringing the stapled papers closer to his chest.

"that's not how they were meant to be stapled. and we kinda ran out of paper."

*

for the next twenty minutes, brian sat as his desk, prying the staple out of the pieces of paper and following jae's instructions on how to staple the papers correctly. "god, this is so annoying," the brunette muttered, stapling yet another small stack of papers together. "how do you even do this every day, jae? i would die!"

the blonde scoffed at him. "yeah. now you know how hard my job is. i've told you a million times, you should respect me more."

"not gonna argue with you there, man. my respect for you has officially gone up by 500% in the last few minutes."

jae smugly tugged his tie closer to his neck and fixed his glasses. then he cleared his throat to get the younger man's attention.

"what is it, jae?"

"you wouldn't mind treating me for a meal as an apology then, would you?"

brian chuckled and straightened the bunch of (now stapled) papers into a neat pile. "not at all. so, when will we be having our date?"

"at seve-- wait, this isn't a date, you pervert!" jae swatted the sitting man's shoulder, deciding not to whack the back of the brunette's head as he had originally intended to. "anyways, let's go at seven. that's when work ends, so we can just leave straight away."

"sounds good to me!"

and then the two men went back to working on their respective assignments.

*

"ready to go?" brian asked, stopping by jae's desk after he had packed his stuff up.

"almost," jae haltingly answered, focused on what he still had left to do that day. "not quite. still a bit left. i'll be quick."

"oh. need some help there?" brian stepped closer, leaning on his elbow to get a better look at the papers littering the blonde's desk.

jae groaned in frustration at his work and turned around, ready to snap at his annoying-ass coworker. "brian, you fuckin--" but his face happened to smash against brian's before he could finish his sentence.

"what the fuck, jae?!" brian yelled out, stumbling backwards whilst holding his head.

jae groaned, also holding his head. "that's what you get for standing so close," he muttered to no one in particular, rubbing his temple with his palm.

"ugh." brian slowly walked over to jae once more, cautiously placing his free hand on the desk. "anyway... do you need some help?"

jae sighed and tried to ignore the pain in his head while he explained to his pesky coworker how he could help.

*

soon enough, they both finished jae's work and packed the blonde's stuff into his briefcase. "thanks," the older bashfully said to his officemate.

"no problem," brian said simply, much to the blonde's surprise. the taller male had expected some snide remark or at least a sharp laugh of some sort. his mind kinda went blank and he felt his heartbeat escalate for a few seconds until he heard brian clear his throat and call for him from beside the door. "let's go, then. it's getting late; you must be hungry."

"starving," jae breathed out, before following his smiling work partner out the door.

*

"so. what do you want to eat?"

the two men were standing beside a small street vendor, looking at the choices of traditional korean delicacies in search of their preferences for the night. "um..." jae finally spotted something he wanted and his eyes lit up in joy. "that! i want that!!" he slightly jumped up in excitement, pointing in the direction of one of the foods on the board. "uh, i forgot what it's called and i can't seem to read the sign," he bashfully whispered. the words were loud enough for brian to hear; jae just hoped brian would hold off on the jokes and teasing he usually gifted jae whenever the blonde asked him for help reading korean words he had to translate to english on his work papers. he was too hungry for insults at the moment, and his head still hurt a bit because of the unfortunate collision with brian he suffered earlier.

"ah." jae gulped in apprehension, but brian simply walked closer to him, a questioning look on his face. "which one did you want again?"

jae let out a sigh of relief, once more pointing out the food he wanted. "that one. the one over there, to the left of the kimchi."

"oh! the bulgogi! great choice." brian smiled over at his workmate, giving their orders to the woman at the stand. he then turned back to jae, asking, "do you want anything to drink, dude?"

"uh..." jae looked back up at the sign and sighted a drink he wanted. "um... that one over there. next to the coca cola."

jae pointed it out, and brian nodded. "the sikhye. sure. wanna go save us some seats while i pay and wait for the food?" jae nodded, and he saw brian smile again. "great!" jae really wanted to see brian smile all the time like that from now on.

the brunette turned back to the stand, ordering their drinks. jae took that as his cue to go find a table for them. he aimlessly walked among the tables lining the side of the street for a few minutes before his eyes landed on an empty table that looked like it was made for one person. he looked around him to see if there were any other spaces available. alas, this looked like the only table available in the whole street. so he slid a second chair next to the table and sat down, waiting for the brunette to find him with his food.

about ten minutes later, jae sighted the brunette wading through the crowd, two trays of food balanced on his hands, looking as if he was about to fall and break his neck. the blonde sighed and stood up from his chair, leaving his briefcase on the tabletop to signal that the table was taken. then he approached brian. "need some help?"

the brunette jumped, not expecting the sudden words directed at him. he nearly dropped all of the food in the process, but luckily, jae was able to grab the sides of the trays to prevent a disaster from happening. "jae! you scared me so much!!"

"tch. i came to help you out, since you looked like you were having some trouble. good thing i came to help before all our food ended up on the ground!"

brian sheepishly chuckled. he would've rubbed his neck in embarrassment if his hands weren't occupied. so his cheeks decided to help him out and coloured themselves a reddish shade. "o-- oh. thanks, jae."

"mm." jae saw the blush coating brian's cheeks and smiled a bit. the blonde really hoped the brunette couldn't see the blush covering his own cheeks...

once the two were seated at the table, they said their thank yous for the food and dug in. the food was nice and hot, and it got rid of the awkwardness between the coworkers in no time. they didn't even notice how fucking close they were sitting to each other. there was barely a chopstick's-length space between their faces, but they were way too occupied messily munching on their food to react.

soon enough, the men were laughing away with each other, telling stories and sipping on their drinks and chewing their delicious food.
they were in the middle of a conversation about turtles when jae had the urge to ask brian something. "hey," he said, opening and closing his chopsticks in nervousness. "is that good?" he pointed his chopsticks in the direction of brian's drink, tilting his head to the side a bit in curiosity.

"oh, this?" the brunette looked at his drink, blinking in confusion. "you've never tried an aloe drink?"

jae shook his head, slightly flustered. "no. no, i haven't."

the younger's eyes widened a bit. "oh, jae-ah, you're in for a treat tonight! it's really good!! here, have some!" he pushed his drink toward jae, turning the straw around so that it faced the blonde. "it's so good! here, here. drink up!"

jae hesitantly looked brian in the eyes. "you sure? it's your drink, not mine..."

"just try it already!" brian squirmed in his seat, abandoning his kimbap for a bit to push the aloe drink even closer to jae. "come on!"

"okay." the blonde brought the drink closer and softly grabbed the straw. he placed it in between his lips and sipped. the sweet liquid entered his mouth and his eyes widened. "this is so good!! ahh!!!"

brian stared at the older in amusement. "if you like it so much, you can have it." he couldn't help but feel his heart flutter when he saw jae so happy. it was endearing. more than endearing.

it was absolutely adorable.

"no, no!!" jae refused, pushing the drink back toward its owner. "it's yours; i don't want to steal it from you!"

brian chuckled, reaching across the table to grab jae's hand and clasp it around the cup. "keep it. it's the least i can do to apologize for making your head hurt."

jae nodded, not able to comprehend what was going on. had brian always been this nice??

after they finally finished their meals and disposed of their trash, the men grabbed their briefcases and prepared to head home.

"which way are you going?" brian questioned.

"i live just five minutes from here. in that direction." jae pointed in the direction of his apartment.

brian grew excited for no reason and clapped his hands together once. "oh. let me accompany you, then!"

"no way! you have your own home to go to, anyway..." the blonde felt uncomfortable. he actually kinda wanted brian to walk him home. why, he did not know. but he wasn't going to give in that easily.

"awh, come on." brian approached jae, throwing his arm over his shoulder. "i'll take you out for another meal tomorrow if you let me take you home."

on second thought... jae would give in that easily. "okay."

and so they headed toward the tall man's home, brian swinging jae side to side by his shoulders as they walked, happily singing a song. jae soon joined him, and they walked, still swinging from side to side, quietly singing songs for themselves and smiling like idiots.

***

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