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“How strange,” Team B Leader comments, looking up from his computer. “Our busy newly-promoted researcher finally found free time to visit? I feel so honored.”
Said person, who was just closing the door behind him, walked over with a slight scoff. What an exaggeration, really. If they're talking about ranks, isn't this guy more important than him, since he's an elite team leader?
“What are you up to?”
“Hm. I was arranging some files. Take a seat?”
The team leader watched until Kwak Jekang was finally settling down next to him, pulling out the chair conveniently placed nearby. Then, he refocused back on his work, this time with a smile on his face.
“So,” he starts. “What do I owe this pleasure to?”
“There's this Darkness…”
Haha, of course.
When Kwak Jekang was moderately new to the company, it was the team leader who would frequently come by to chat with him about these kinds of things. This is because nobody else can stay in a room faced with the eccentricity of the researcher.
Nobody except for Team B Leader, who would simply lend an ear with patience befitting of an elite team leader.
“What about it?”
The silence that has once filled the room was finally filled with chatter. Kwak Jekang endlessly bothers the team leader, asking him questions persistently and forcing the other man to validate the thoughts and hypotheses that he has. Even so, the typing sounds that played in harmony with these words did not slow down even for a moment.
After a while, the researcher ran out of things to say. He slumped by the rest of the chair and boredly stared at the room.
The team leader finally stops as well, glancing at his visitor.
“Have you run out of things to say?”
“Just now, yes.”
“That's new. Don't you have endless things to say most of the time?”
“Aigoo, is this team leader calling me noisy?” Kwak Jekang shoots back immediately. “How rude. I should send you to another Darkness in retaliation. There's this new one I'm curious about…”
“Now that would only be beneficial for you. You'd just be happy for new data, yes?”
“Obviously.”
“This hoobae is starting to get more cheeky with me.”
“Hah!”
Even with how he says it, though, the team leader's tone never changed, retaining that consistent and even level.
A hand reached out to something on the table. Kwak Jekang picks up a note that was just lying there, squinting at it then carelessly waving it around in the air.
“Then, what's this about, Mr. Busy-Man?”
“That?” The team leader looks over. He tilts his head, unaffected as he recognizes what it was. “Oh, it's just some notes about the team. Do you want it?”
“Even if you don't ask, I would take it if I want to.”
“I guess I raised you wrong.”
Kwak Jekang snickers to himself. However, there was genuine interest in his eyes at the prospect of finding out some details he must've not yet known about the elite team B.
“There's probably nothing you don't know yet there, so don't be too excited.”
“That's for me to decide, don't you think?”
“By all means, go ahead.”
“What?” Kwak Jekang blinks, wearing faux shock in his face. “Wow, is that how the team leader should act? You're not even going to protect the privacy of your members?”
Said man laughed a little when he heard those words. “Jekang-ah, are you trying to goad me into arguing with you?”
“Tsk, hey. How could someone like me do that to the very important and reliable Team B Leader?”
“I heard that's how you are lately. You've really become a chatty guy, huh?”
“So the polite team leader is calling me noisy?”
“No? How could I?”
Oh, he clearly was, but not in a malicious way. There was something about how collected he was that would've enraged anyone else, though, if he told them the same words.
The researcher shakes his head. Yeah, there was no use trying to crack this person’s patience. He was way too cautious to be baited into an argument or rage.
I'll be the one to figure it out, though, Kwak Jekang thinks to himself, turning his attention back to the notes in his hands. I'll figure out what it was that makes you crack.
The handwriting that greeted his eyes was beautiful, scribbled in both Hangul and English script with pure black ink. Even the erasures were cleanly disregarded with a single straight line across the letter.
Firm, proper and well-practiced. Just like the man himself.
“Come to think of it...” Something in his memory was prompted as he looked at it. “Do you know? People have been saying you have the prettiest handwriting in the company.”
“Me?”
Fingers traced the small but readable letters. “That's right.”
“Hm…I do remember the other members of the team mentioning it.”
“Team B Leader is so perfect,” Kwak Jekang says in that specific tone again that he just naturally gets into when trying to bait someone. It was just a habit, he can't help it. “From his skills to even his handwriting, what can he not do?”
Finally, the other person stopped typing.
He turned his chair towards his visitor, an eyebrow raised.
“Then, shall I teach you?”
“...What?”
The corner of the team leader's lips curled upwards. He stood up slowly, taking careful steps to move to the back of Kwak Jekang’s chair.
Step.
Step.
Step.
His steady pace echoed around the room. Kwak Jekang also swivels his seat around, trying to keep an eye on the other person. There was a sharp feeling in the air that made him straighten up, alert. Like this, he cannot help to recall the mask and alias given to this person.
Wolf.
His seat was forced back into place, facing the open laptop. An arm rested on the table as well, just a millimeter away from his hands.
The team leader leans forward, just next to his right ear. His jet black hair falls into his face, covering whatever expression he was making.
“Shall I teach you?”
“...”
Gulp.
Kwak Jekang lets out a laugh, as if challenging him to try so. However, there was a lack of mockery to it that was so typical of him.
“Team leader, is this not workplace harrassment?”
“Is it?”
The wolf leader’s head shifted slightly, meeting the researcher's eyes. There was a friendly smile playing on his mouth.
“Well, I was just offering.”
A free hand comes to ruffle his hair. The one that was resting over the table swiftly took the notes in Kwak Jekang’s hand, and then he moved away.
“I’ve been wondering since you’ve come here during lunch time,” he says as he walks to a different table where he could put the notes on. Somewhere Kwak Jekang won’t easily reach while he is sitting on that chair. “Have you eaten yet? My members have gone off to lunch, but you’re here instead.”
Kwak Jekang quickly regains his composure, more or less used to the sudden behavior of the team leader by now.
“Why? Are you trying to look after me as well?”
“Isn’t it basic courtesy to look after my hoobae?”
That was a little funny. He came to this conclusion because the researcher went to this office rather than the cafeteria. But if you look at it another way, should this guy also be off eating? Why was he slaving away with work?
“How truly touching.”
“Haha,” Team B Leader chuckles to himself, turning his head so he can face the younger man, who was already looking at him. “Of course, who else would look after this foolish researcher?”