Jaemin fiddles with his red inked pen between his fingers, occasionally glancing down at his watch wrapped around his wrist while gnawing his lower lip as each second passes by.

Lia, who's in the same room as him, flashes him a worried look. Contrast to what she had shown earlier when this all started.

She had the guts to tease her boss about switching moods between excited and a worrywart. Wiggling her eyebrows here and there whenever he asks about a certain someone.

But now, she's getting anxious too.

"Maybe he's just late...?" She had repeated over and over again for the past few minutes now, even sounding more doubtful of herself than anything.

Jaemin shakes his head, disagreeing with her. "I know he is still struggling to manage his time with work for some personal reasons I haven't dared to ask yet."

"But it's almost an hour," his watch showing the time. Exactly 7:50. "He can be late at times, but has never been this late."

"Ehm, traffic? Perhaps?" Lia tries to guess out loud. "He doesn't have a car, right, Sir Na?"

Even she doesn't have a clue on where the brunet man is at the moment. She has not gotten a call nor a message from him.

Both she and Jaemin had already attempted to contact him, but to no avail. Messages were unread and calls were not picked up.

"That's it," Jaemin abruptly says as he straightens his posture on his office chair. "Once it exactly turns into an hour, I will go look for him."

It might sound ridiculous for a lot of people.

Na Jaemin is suddenly so worried of his secretary's whereabouts and dares to leave work just to go look for him?

Well, Jaemin can't deny but admit that yes, he does have romantic feelings for his secretary, which is why he also cares about his well-being.

He does not care if he is being talked about whether in front of his face or behind his back. Such as a dumb rumor.

Unless you have crossed a specific line. He will definitely fight back, especially if it is also about his loved ones.

Seeing the time ticking until his watch shows it is exactly 8 o'clock, he stands up and hastily spits out instructions for Lia to take care of before disappearing from his office.

𖢻

After trying to navigate where Jeno is at the moment, because he doesn't know where the younger man lives, Jaemin abruptly stops his car and almost bumps into someone.

Sliding his window down to quickly apologize to the stranger, he continues to drive a bit more to follow a familiar brunet man on the sidewalk.

"Jeno?" The person snaps his head to Jaemin's direction in shock, totally not expecting for someone to call out for him.

"M–Mr. Na!" Jeno stammers, eyes blown wide. "What– what are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same thing, Jeno-yah." Jaemin replies in a gentle yet also serious tone.

Most people would immediately get mad and yell at their employee if they had made a small misunderstanding.

But Jaemin doesn't have the guts to be mad at Jeno. How could he? He doesn't even know the brunet man's reasonings as to why he isn't at work.

Seeing him fidgeting with his fingers as he bites his lower lip, pondering deep in his thoughts on how to properly answer Jaemin.

It brings Jaemin back to his interview– quiet and nervous, once he opens his mouth to speak, it's all stuttered words while his cheeks turn bright red from it all.

Jaemin swears it somehow endeared him. He found it cute per se.

Sighing, he beckons Jeno over to his car and reaches to open the door for him. Offering him a ride, his secretary hesitantly enters the car, confusion written all over his face.

𖢻

"I'm so sorry, Mr. Na, what I did was in no doubt unprofessional– irresponsible, immature even!" Jeno rambles, eyes wide all while as he doesn't realize how loud he is getting.

"What really happened, Jeno?" Jaemin asks, reaching a hand to rest over Jeno's own. The latter blushing at the gentle treatment from his boss.

"Why are you late? Not even late– absent. Without telling me or Lia beforehand, or just outright tell us."

Jeno visibly cringes at Jaemin's words, he couldn't sugarcoat his actions. And Jeno doesn't blame him.

Forehead wrinkling as he furrows his eyebrows, he exhales and begins to explain himself.

"I just had to take care of something important– I'm not saying work isn't important to me too, but like– it's, ehm... It's..."

"An emergency?" Jaemin guesses the missing word for him.

Nodding off frantically, Jeno instinctively squeezes Jaemin's hand for whatever reason.

"It was so sudden. So I didn't really had time to prepare myself," tilting his chin down to look his clothes, Jaemin smiles in amusement.

Jeno is not in his work clothes, but rather just in a casual attire.

Quietly on his seat, Jaemin wonders when will he see Jeno like this again. Or even more often.

"I couldn't tell you or Lia immediately because I was in such a hurry. Oh and my phone is also dead at the moment," smiling sheepishly.

"Then after I had that situation covered, I started looking for a ride to take me home so I could change and head off to work... Until you saw me, Sir."

"I'm glad you're okay," Jaemin suddenly says, having Jeno blushing even more as he receives a gentle squeeze on his hand.

"And I'm glad I saw you, I thought I was going to lose it."

"Why is that, Sir?" Oh how much Jaemin wants to rant to Jeno as to why.

Several why's.

But he will save the brunet man's state for later.

So he settles with, "I got worried because you just... Disappeared, and of course I couldn't just sit there."

"Then I struggled to look for you because neither Lia or I knew exactly where you live..."

"I can take you there, Mr. Na." Jeno abruptly comments.

You've done it again, moron!

"I mean, I do have to change my attire for work... And it's a good timing we're both heading there anyway." He rephrases, gulping at Jaemin's brow that was raised specifically at him.

Humming for a while, Jaemin then nods and flashes him that very charming smile of his. "That's a good idea, Jeno-yah."

"It will also help me in the future," Jeno's breath hitches when he hears that and he swears he was about to scream for no reason.

Despite noticing his obvious reaction from his words, Jaemin bites back a smirk and pretends to be clueless.

"Like when you're in need of help, emergency purposes, etcetera." He elaborates, Jeno nodding off mindlessly.

So without further ado, Jaemin stands up and gently pulls a flustered Jeno along with him, chuckling at the younger man before leading him back to the car.

All Jeno could think about was;

What have I done?!

𖢻

Thoughts??

I'm like so physically tired– like I didn't get to take a nap today because I had stuff to do and had breakfast late.

9:20 specifically. That's already late for me, it's a thing in my country. I usually wake up at 5 or 6, but damn shit our housemaid suddenly bailed out lmao wtf.

Four times in a row :')

Anyways, at least I finished some paperwork too. Got that covered 🤪