Chapter Text
Baekhyun puts the letter down in disbelief. This couldn't be. No, no. God, no.
"Daehyun. No."
"But Appa~" The 4-year-old whines, but his father stands his ground and he places the candy back.
Baekhyun sighs as he bends down, "When Appa gets some money with this new job, I can let you buy whatever you want, okay? For now, we have to save a little. Sorry, buddy."
They bought whatever necessities in the store, Daehyun chatting his mouth off about everything under the sun. Once they get home, Daehyun goes to play in his room while Baekhyun preps for his new job.
He was still in awe of how he got a job at one of the more renowned companies in the whole of Asia, as a secretary for the CEO no less. For someone with not a lot of experience and just a degree in business from a normal university and not one of the elite SKY universities, he hit the jackpot.
Maybe they made a mistake and mixed up the candidates, but when he checks the contract for the nth time, his name, Byun Baekhyun, written clearly on it, it's safe to say he is just a very lucky man.
Okay well, that in actuality, is the least of his problems. Gosh, if he knew who the CEO was before he sent in an application, he wouldn't have applied for it. Granted, he didn't even think he'd get called in for an interview; so when he did his research and saw the CEO's name, he almost puked on his laptop.
He miraculously got the job when he thought he wouldn’t, considering there were so many other amazing candidates, but Baekhyun’s a little too desperate at this point.
He would be okay with Kim Jongdae. The same Kim Jongdae that he dated briefly almost 5 years ago. The same Kim Jongdae who made his heart soar right after he woke up from what he thought would be just a one-time thing. The same Kim Jongdae he left at the altar when they decided to get married after just 3 months of dating. The same Kim Jongdae… the same man who is also the father of their son.
Yep. Pretty fucked up, since Baekhyun did screw up on his end; not by choice though. Just unfortunate circumstances.
He just hopes Jongdae forgets about him, as much as Baekhyun didn't.
\\
"Mr Byun?" He turns around to be greeted by a member from the HR team, also one of the people who had interviewed him 3 weeks prior.
“Yes. Hello Ms Jeon.” They shook hands and Ms Jeon led him to one of the rooms on the top floors.
“Thank you for coming early. Mr Kim would be arriving shortly. Usually one of us would give you a tour, but he had requested to give you a tour himself. Just sit back and relax. Mr Kim is nice,” she smiles comfortingly before taking her leave.
Baekhyun waits for Jongdae to arrive, and he shakes his legs as he waits. It’s just a nervous h-
“I see you still do that.” Baekhyun spins his head to the left as he sees a devastatingly handsome man walk in. His heart beats even faster as he shakily stands up and bows. God, he hates how Jongdae still affects him till this day.
Baekhyun bows, “G-good morning Mr Kim.”
“Good morning, Baekhyun.” Jongdae checks him out blatantly, face extremely stoic and strict, before slamming the documents he had with him on the table, shocking the other.
“How are you?”
“Um…good.” They’ve both already sat down, and Baekhyun doesn’t dare to look at the other.
“I’m good too, thanks for asking,” Jongdae sarcastically replies before he asks, “Have you taken a look at the contract?” Baekhyun nods, and he takes out the said papers from his file.
“Do you want to change anything? Or are we in agreement?”
“Um… they’re fine…”
“Alright, the ones we would keep for our records are with me. But we can sign yours and you can keep those too.” Baekhyun only nodded his head again as they signed each copy.
“Shall we go on a tour?”
“And this is my office. You’ll be sitting right here of course.” Jongdae points to the area outside the largest room on the floor. “Jiyeon is on leave today so you can just settle down for today. She will start training you tomorrow. I don’t really have much today that I need you for urgently. You do have to follow me to a couple of meetings though, but you can just sit there and look pretty.”
Baekhyun blushed just as Jongdae realises his words, to which he softly apologise, gave him a curt nod, before escaping to his office. The single father is glad he may not be the only one flustered.
“Ah, Baekhyun. I’m sure you don’t remember us.” He hears as he finishes putting up a small framed picture of him and Daehyun discreetly on the desk. Looking up, he sees three tall figures towering over him, and while they did look familiar to him, he couldn’t quite recall anything at the moment.
His instincts did flare up though, and he stood up and bows his head, formally greeting the 3, “Hello, my name is Byun Baekhyun. I hope you’ll take care of me well.” There was a long pause, making Baekhyun increasingly uncomfortable and stiff.
“I told you he wouldn’t remember us,” the middle one says.
“We only met him twice after all. Thrice. If you counted just now in passing,” the tallest one says. Baekhyun tries his very best to recall where he’d seen these men, only for the tall one to help him.
“We’re Jongdae’s friends, and we also work for him.”
“Unfortunately.”
“I am Yixing,” the middle one extends his hand. “Chanyeol, Sehun,” he points to both boys by his side. “We met once when Jongdae introduced you to us, and then at Jongdae’s bachelor party.”
“We didn’t see you at the wedding though,” Sehun comments, and Yixing had to hit him for the crude remark.
“Ah, I see,” Baekhyun rubs his neck, “Sorry.”
“Don’t worry about it. You had your reasons… right?”
“Um, yeah.”
“Anyway, we would be working closely with you now,” Yixing speaks up again, “Let’s work well together.” Baekhyun nodded his head, thanking them as they walked away.
Well, shit just keeps getting fucking weirder and more awkward by the day. He looks at the clock. Damn, it’s only 11 in the morning. Help him, God.
He reckons that since it’s his first full-time job in a while, he’s rightfully extremely exhausted by the end of Wednesday.
\\
The job is much tougher than it looks; having to memorise all of Mr Kim’s schedules, his likes/dislikes, his habits etcetera. He doesn’t know how Ms Jiyeon has been able to handle it so far, and he gives her a lot of credit.
“Don’t worry, Mr Kim is nice~”
Well, Baekhyun learns very quickly (on the first day), that he’s an exception. Jongdae had acted cold towards him since the very beginning, but the complete opposite with literally everyone else.
Baekhyun concludes it was probably because of the past, and he doesn’t blame the other. The only thing that keeps him going is Daehyun; be it the picture of Daehyun he keeps at the back of his tag to look at when he feels Jongdae (subtly) scrutinizing him, or the thought of doing this for his son, and his future.
He hasn’t said anything yet, but Baekhyun feels Jongdae’s a little displeased at him and his work, but it has barely been in a week.
“Jiyeon leaves next week. Be sure to at least catch up and know 85% of what she does vividly,” Jongdae gives his parting statement before he leaves work for the day.
Baekhyun really tries his best, he really does; staying up till the early morning to memorise what he needed to memorise, and he was even tasked to schedule his boss’ work for the next 3 months. It was stressful and nerve-wrecking, and Baekhyun loses sleep over it. But as he turns to the right and sees his son’s bedroom door shut close, he’s more determined than ever.
It is when Jiyeon finally leaves, that hell breaks loose. He feels that Jongdae is never content with his work, even if Baekhyun followed what the former secretary did to the T, and he considers looking for another job by week 5.
He forgets about all that when Daehyun finally got the candy he wanted at the store a month ago, and the big smile on his face erases all the exhaustion of the past weeks.
“Where is the contract that I asked you to give me?”
“I… I cannot find it, Sir… It’s not in the system,” Baekhyun keeps his head down as Jongdae sighs heavily.
“What can you do around here? Not even decent coffee.” Standing up suddenly, he walks out of the office and to Baekhyun’s computer behind the desk, and presses some buttons on the keyboard.
“Found it.” The printer starts buzzing and a few papers come out, Jongdae quickly taking it away and flipping through it. “Did Jiyeon not teach you this?”
“Sh-she did, Sir.”
“And? You can’t follow simple instructions?” Baekhyun didn’t answer, as his boss walked away sighing, “Get back to work.”
He suddenly stops in his steps and says, “Oh right. You’re going on a trip with me in 2 weeks. Clear your personal schedule.” Baekhyun nods and Jongdae closes the door behind him.
Luckily for him, Minseok and Kyungsoo had agreed to babysit Daehyun for the 3 days he was going to be in Osaka. He’s always thankful to have very supportive friends, along with Junmyeon and Jongin, and he wouldn’t know how he’d be without the 4 of them.
\\
“So your boss is Daehyun’s other father?”
“Yes, Soo, I think that has already been established.”
“That’s fucked up.” Baekhyun rolls his eyes as he sees Daehyun come running towards the table, his Uncle Jongin trailing right behind.
“Hey, Dae.” His son looks at him expectantly. “Appa’s going to go to Japan for awhile, so for three days, you’ll stay with Uncle Minseok and Uncle Kyungsoo. Aren’t you excited?!”
Daehyun furrows his brows, “Why?”
“Because you cannot stay alone, buddy. It’s only going to be 3 days.”
“I can! I’m big boy!”
“We all know you are, but who’s going to pick you up from school? Who’s going to cook for you?”
Daehyun ponders for a little, and looks at Kyungsoo, “Uncle Soo cooks better than you.” That earned some chuckling from his other uncles, and Baekhyun sighs, “Okay, so you’ll be okay, right?”
“Promise you’ll come back?” His son pouts and extends his pinky finger.
Connecting his finger to the little one, Baekhyun says, “I promise.”
Baekhyun has never been in first class before. Heck, not even business class. So don’t mind him as he awes and marvel at the glory of being in first class.
“Some champagne for you, Sir?”
“No.” “Yes!” Baekhyun looks at his boss as the stewardess looks between them awkwardly, before playing the flute onto the side table anyway.
“You forgot you’re a lightweight? We don’t need you drunk by the time we land.”
“It’s just one glass.” Baekhyun wasn’t in the mood to drink anymore. He did eventually drink a little though, and as they departed for Osaka, Baekhyun dreams of sunny skies and beautiful city lights.
“Oh. We’re staying in the same room…?”
“It’s called a suite.” Jongdae points to the room on the left, “Yours.” Then to the right, “Mine.” Baekhyun nodded his head as he dragged his luggage to the said room.
“Be ready in 30 minutes. We have lunch to attend.”
Baekhyun’s conflicted. On one hand, Jongdae is friendly and charming (that he knows) to literally everyone else, but once it’s just him and Baekhyun, he turns sour. He wonders if the younger still held a grudge.
Of course he does. Baekhyun did leave him at their wedding; no reason, no goodbyes. He just upped and bailed on the other groom. He feels that Jongdae has every right to give him this cold treatment. Should he talk to him about it?
“Mr Byun, if you’re not going to pay attention to what I have to say, you might as well take the first flight home and turn in your resignation letter.” The secretary snaps out of it and bows, “I apologise, Mr Kim.”
The rest of the day goes by smoothly; it was meetings after meetings, and they only got back to the hotel room around 8 in the evening.
Jongdae orders room service for them both as Baekhyun takes a shower, before he gets to the dining room to see that the food is already here.
“I got you some pork katsu. And mango juice.” Baekhyun thanked the CEO before settling down beside him awkwardly.
Usually, they’d be in the presence of other clients or colleagues, so the secretary does not know what to do with himself when he’s alone with his boss. Who also happens to be his ex and the father of their child. (Yeah, we got that.)
“So… how have you been?”
“H-huh?” Baekhyun was honestly not expecting Jongdae to talk to him, so clearly, he’s taken aback.
“The last 4 years, since you left. What have you been up to?”
“Um, just… around.”
“Around?”
“Yeah.” Jongdae senses Baekhyun doesn’t actually want to answer the question, so he lets it go. Thankfully though, the single father was saved by the bell, or his phone.
“Excuse me.” Baekhyun rushes into his room and closes the door behind him.
“Hey baby.”
“APPA!” Daehyun screamed loudly and excitedly into the phone, and went straight into storytelling about his day. Baekhyun’s heart soars, seeing his son so enthusiastic even through the screen, and he reminds himself that Daehyun is the reason why he’s doing what he’s doing.
“That’s great, baby.”
“What did you do today, Appa?”
“I went to meet a lot of people. Boring meetings.”
“Have you bought me anything yet? I want a looooot of things! Can you send me more pictures?”
“I haven’t bought you anything yet, baby. I will when I have time, okay? To buy you something and to send you pictures.”
“Promise?”
“Promise. Isn’t it almost your bed time there?”
Daehyun pouted, “Yeah~ I miss you, Appa! Come back fast, okay? I love you!”
“I love you too, baby! I’ll see you in two days! Goodnight.”
“Goodnight, Appa!”
Baekhyun sighs and puts down his phone, opening the door to go outside and finish his dinner when he’s met with a very shocked Jongdae at the other side of the door.
“How old is he?” Jongdae speaks up after the elephant silence, only filled with cutleries clacking against each other.
“Four.”
“Four?” Jongdae lowers his hands, biting his lips. For the short time they were together, Baekhyun knew that this meant that the younger was nervous, wanting to say something but was hesitant about it. He would also prompt Jongdae to say something, but Baekhyun just continued eating, hopefully, delaying the inevitable.
“Is he…?”
Baekhyun looks down, red crippling up his face.
"Baekhyun.” He looks up. “Is the kid mine?”
Baekhyun debated whether to come clean or not, but decided he could only keep it a secret for so long, “Um… yes.”
Silence envelopes them once again, and Jongdae stands up and goes to the mini bar, grabbing a bottle of beer. Popping it open expertly, he one-shots it. That’s another sign Baekhyun remembers, but it’s generally telling enough.
“Wh… Why didn’t you tell me?!”
Baekhyun shakes his head and starts sobbing, food be damned.
“BYUN BAEKHYUN. TELL ME. WHY?!” Jongdae starts raising his voice, “For fuck’s sake, Baekhyun. You left me at our wedding, and then go on with your life, alone, raising our child?!”
“Jongd-” He didn’t manage to call out his name when he hears Jongdae say into the phone, “Ask Irene to look into child custody and parental rights please. Make sure it’s ready to be presented to me when I am back next week.”
“Jongdae, please.”
“I’m going to fucking sue you. I’m going to sue the fuck out of you for our child that you kept a secret from me for four fucking years. And when we return, I expect a resignation letter on my desk.” Jongdae commands as he walks into his room and slams the door behind him.
Baekhyun cries himself to sleep on the floor by the sofa. Nothing scares him the most than losing his own son.
\\
“Is he alright?”
“He’s fine. Just under the weather,” Jongdae answers for him to their client as they walk into the room for another meeting.
The rest of the day went by in a blur. Baekhyun's mind goes into an overdrive, thinking about he’s inevitably going to lose to Jongdae, who must’ve the best lawyers money can buy. He couldn’t lose Daehyun.
“No, no, no,” he softly sighs out.
“Baekhyun. Please leave the room if you’re not going to be focused.”
“Sorry,” he bows slightly towards his boss, before carrying on taking down notes. He mentally notes to think of a plan as soon as they step foot into Seoul.