Yejun stepped into the office onto the fifth floor, surprised by how busy it was. 

“<Hey! I told you we cannot do–>”

“<Eh bien, si tu voulais juste!>”

“<Droga, Lee, eu disse–>”

The mix of languages being spoken made Yejun’s head spin, even if they weren't talking very loudly. He knew it was mandatory that the employees in Gye’s acquisition department were multi-lingual, but he had not expected that they would not speak Korean at work. He cleared his throat, gently knocking on the door, silencing the other employees. 

“Excuse me? I’m Gye’s Lead Editor Lim.”

“Oh, right!” A slightly older man approached, the one who had been speaking French, with a bright smile on his face. “Team Leader Lee had to go down the hall to get something from the printer, he’ll be back soon. If you want, I can walk you to the meeting room.”

“Yes, thank you…?”

“Park,” The man grinned, offering his hand briefly before thinking better of it and bowing instead. “Sorry, habit.”

“It’s alright,” Yejun brushed off, allowing Park to pass him as they exited the office. In the hallway, it seemed to be busy, with employees from the other imprints seemingly moving around the floor. “Is it always so chaotic here?”

“Oh, usually. We all may have our own offices for our imprints, but we share everything else. Meeting rooms, copy room, break room, bathrooms,” Park explained as they walked, acknowledging another employee as they walked past. “We also have to frequently go down to floor 2, since Finance is always getting on us about something.”

Yejun nodded, considering Park’s words as they entered a quieter portion of the floor. He knew every floor didn’t work like his; after all Gye was the only imprint with two leads since it was the only floor that needed two separate teams. However, it wasn’t common for translations and editing to really mingle, with meetings between teams usually just between him and the translation team lead. They had their own spaces on the floor, and Yejun started to consider if it would be better if they did share space. 

“Here,” Park’s voice made him glance up, and he realized they were in front of a small room, one that looked more like a tiny office than a meeting room. “We use these for contract meetings, since they allow privacy.”

“Thank you Park-ssi,” Yejun bowed his head, about to say more when he heard another voice. 

“Lim-nim? You’re here already?” Minjae’s voice sounded surprised, and Yejun glanced up to see the alpha carrying a folder neatly filled with papers. “I didn’t think you’d come down right away.”

“I have the time now and we need to get the contract approved as soon as possible,” Yejun explained, waiting as Minjae adjusted the folder in order to punch in the code to unlock the door. As soon as he had it open, the alpha stepped back, holding the door for Yejun. 

“Of course, I just printed the adjusted version,” Minjae answered, turning to Park. “Thank you, Park, for escorting Lim-nim.”

“No problem, needed a reason to get Hwang off my back. She’s still upset about the memoir ending up with me instead of her.”

Yejun noticed as Minjae sighed heavily, adjusting the folder again. “It’s not a memoir, it's an autobiography. She handles memoirs and story collections, you handle all non-fictions.”

“I know the difference, but she keeps arguing,” Park shrugged. “Just thought you should be ready for that because she keeps trying to re-write my contract.”

“I’ll deal with it later,” Minjae sighed, finally closing the door as he fully stepped into the office with Yejun. “Sorry about that.”

“It’s fine. We all have our team struggles,” Yejun dismissed, his eyes subconsciously moving to the camera. Minjae seemed to notice the glances and subtly waved his hand. Yejun noticed as the camera disappeared from sight and he glanced back down to the alpha. “What did you–”

“The camera just sees us sitting and talking. You seemed like you were bothered by it,” Minjae explained and Yejun had to take a deep breath to hide his gratitude. “Was there another reason you came down so quickly?”

“Jieun got my gift.” Yejun answered, watching as Minjae set down the folder. “It doesn’t seem like she suspects anything yet.”

“Good. She’s likely smart enough to not use it in a booth, but I don’t think she cares enough to wait long.” Minjae agreed, finally sitting in front of the computer as Yejun sat across from him. “Anything else?”

“I’m going with Woojin to the mud festival in Boryeong,” Yejun explained, adjusting himself in the chair. He hadn’t thought to mention it to Minjae when they were still in America, but he felt it was a good time to say something now. “I haven’t told Jieun yet, but I plan to tell her once my mother approves the schedule.”

“Okay, it’s a good chance to see if Woojin is the only omega she is trying to use, although I doubt it,” Minjae said, but Yejun noticed the way the alpha wasn’t looking at him. He glanced down at the folder, slowly opening it to see the printed contract. “I didn’t change much, but I needed to adjust the pricing per book. American production costs are more expensive, so we can make the contract cheaper than you offered.”

Yejun nodded, scanning the pages of the contract. “We should take Sales next time.”

“I tried too, but I denied another lead. Finance told me I was ‘risking too much’,” Minjae huffed and Yejun struggled to hide his smile. It was the first time he had seen Minjae annoyed with anything and it was reassuring in a way he didn’t know how to place. It made the alpha more human to him. “That’s why I’m trying to fix it before they see it, but Chairman Lim said it had to go through you since you drafted it.”

Yejun finally reached the page discussing book pricing, and he quickly glanced over the changes. He couldn't really remember what his original offer was, but he pretended to be considering the changes.

“This is better,” Yejun said, tapping the revised margin. “And you adjusted the localization clause?”

“No.” Minjae turned the monitor so Yejun could see the updated digital draft. “That’s all on your team, so I figured you and Seulgi had done your part. Do you need to update something?”

“It doesn’t hurt to double check.” Yejun leaned closer, skimming the words on the monitor, but mostly he wanted to catch Minjae’s scent again. He was never one to care much, but lately, he noticed it did a lot to calm his nerves and he wanted to get a candle that mimicked it. “We need to add a clause that lets us adjust the word count. Seulgi missed that. Ten percent should be enough.”

“Her first time, but feel free to remind her,” Minjae agreed, turning the monitor as he adjusted the section. “Anything else, Lim-nim?”

“Um,” Yejun took a deep breath, sitting back in his chair. He wasn't quite ready to return upstairs yet. “I’m still looking for my place, but regardless my family will know where it is. We need somewhere to meet that won’t raise suspicion or require you to use magic.”

“Texting is–”

“Not always enough.” Yejun interrupted. “My mother does occasionally check my phone records and while she’ll overlook me messaging you more right now, she won’t in the future.”

Yejun watched as Minjae sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose again. This was the second time the alpha had done so, and he couldn’t help but be curious why. Was it an ifrit thing or an american thing? Slowly, Minjae released his face, turning his attention back to the screen. 

“I’ll think of something,” Minjae offered, still refusing to make eye contact. “If nothing else needs to be changed, I’ll email you this draft so you can approve it and we can get it down to sales. I’m sure you heard I have other fires to put out today.”

“Of course…” Yejun hesitated. Minjae had immediately reverted back to calling him Lim-nim, something he had never minded before but felt wrong now. They were technically equals, both only being team leads. On top of that, Minjae was the only one who knew the truth, the only one helping him end his engagement with Jieun. He wanted to be more relaxed, but he wasn’t sure how to get Minjae to stop. “Enjoy the rest of your day, Lee-ssi.”

With that, Yejun stood, stepping out of the tiny office. The hallway was quieter now and he glanced down at his watch. It was almost lunch time, so Yejun decided to head down to the cafe before making his way back upstairs.