He should go re-read that email once he got home.
"Yes, boss," Kim Dokja mumbled.
Yoo Joonghyuk cast him a glare that could be translated as 'Don't give me that attitude'.
Right, of course. He couldn't whine and complain about it like a child, could he?
He was just new to this, really. He was never required to be present for fancy events like this before, he only got dragged off when the department went out for drinks.
And he was the team leader now, damn it. What the hell did teams have to plan for?
The place that Yoo Joonghyuk wanted to take him to turned out to be a fancy coffee house.
Ah, Kim Dokja had been the one to suggest a cafe after all. He'd just have to go through this.
He was expecting a normal cafe, not whatever this was! He wasn't even sure if they would be let inside, dressed the way they were.
Oh, well, whatever. As long as it was what Yoo Joonghyuk wanted and was comfortable with, it should be fine.
They weren't stopped by the staff at the entrance, and Kim Dokja supposed it had something to do with Yoo Joonghyuk and the general vibe he gave off.
They were shown to a round table outside on the balcony with a rather nice cafe parasol spread out overhead. Ordering their coffees, they went through the menu, looking for a suitable cake.
"What kind do you like, Joonghyuk-ssi?" Kim Dokja asked, scanning through the menu. The lack of prices listed next to each item was a little concerning.
"I have never given it much thought," Yoo Joonghyuk said, examining his own menu. "What about you, Dokja-ssi?"
Kim Dokja paused.
What kind of cake did he like?
He knew the kids loved chocolate. Lee Jihye did too, she liked chocolate, lava cakes would have her losing her mind but she didn't really like mint chocolate.
Kim Namwoon liked black forest, Jang Hayoung preferred red velvet and often got into arguments with Kim Namwoon about that not being a legit flavour; 'It's just food colouring', was what he'd say. And 'So is your hair', Hayoung would snap back.
While Han Sooyoung liked her lemon candy, she didn't often go for lemon in her cakes; and she was partial to buttercream. Yoo Sangah preferred something light with whipped cream and caramel was her favourite.
Lee Hyunsung wasn't picky about desserts, he would have anything and for his birthdays they usually got a generic vanilla. He didn't exactly like fondant very much though. Jung Heewon liked cheesecakes and since her birthday was in the summer, they got ice cream cakes for her.
Yoo Joonghyuk's birthday was in summer too, but he wasn't a fan of ice cream cakes; he liked something that wasn't too sweet and usually baked his own cake. Lee Seolhwa liked those birthday cakes with a lot of fruits both inside and as garnish mixed with a lot of cream.
What did Kim Dokja like?
"I've never thought about it either," Kim Dokja answered Yoo Joonghyuk's question.
He tried to recollect the kind of birthday cake his friends had brought him on his birthday last February. What was it? It was vanilla, wasn't it? And he remembered the pastel blue designs made of sweet cream and silver edible sugar balls sprinkling on the top.
Kim Dokja and Yoo Joonghyuk sat for a while, lost in their own thoughts, trying to pick a cake.
"Do you like chocolate?" Kim Dokja asked.
"I don't mind it," Yoo Joonghyuk said. "What about you?"
"I'm the same. Say, vanilla or chocolate?"
". . .No clue. I'm fine with either. You?"
"Same," Kim Dokja sighed.
Their predicament persisted.
"You should pick, Dokja-ssi," Yoo Joonghyuk said finally. "I'm fine with anything you'd choose."
"It's your birthday," Kim Dokja reminded him. "Shouldn't you be the one making the choice?"
"I leave myself in your capable hands," Yoo Joonghyuk closed the menu and dropped it on the table, dusting that off his hands, all the pressure now on Kim Dokja.
Kim Dokja made sure that Yoo Joonghyuk saw his peeved look. Yoo Joonghyuk ignored it with an incredibly annoying ease.
Kim Dokja rolled his eyes and went through the menu once again. Chocolate and caramel would be too much, wouldn't it?
"How about vanilla and raspberry?" Kim Dokja said.
"Sounds good," Yoo Joonghyuk gave a single nod.
Of course, it did. He didn't particularly care, did he?
Placing their order, they sipped on their coffee and chatted. Kim Dokja was glad Yoo Joonghyuk wasn't scolding him for being irresponsible about work again.
It was the smallest cake they had, but it was still too much for just two people to finish.
"No singing this time?" Yoo Joonghyuk joked.
"I'm traumatised after last time," Kim Dokja huffed. ". . .Uriel Noona used to be really scary."
"She still is," said Yoo Joonghyuk. "She's just taken a liking to you."
"Well," Kim Dokja cleared his throat. "It would be awkward to just cut the cake immediately and since we're out in public, singing is a little...But! I've got a solution for it."
Yoo Joonghyuk watched him with mild curiosity as Kim Dokja went onto his phone and pulled up a video of the birthday song. He placed his phone on the table and played the song, the volume loud enough for only the both of them to hear.
Yoo Joonghyuk raised an eyebrow. Kim Dokja probably looked like a silly kid to him, but he brushed it away. He didn't mind coming off as immature, it was Yoo Joonghyuk's birthday.
With a sigh, Yoo Joonghyuk picked up the knife. Kim Dokja clapped lightly when the song ended and Yoo Joonghyuk sliced through the cake.
He cut the cake with precision, making four equal quarters. It was a considerably large slice, Kim Dokja felt when Yoo Joonghyuk put a slice of cake onto a plate and passed it to him. Kim Dokja thought it ought to have been split into eight pieces instead of four.
Neither of them was a slow eater and the cake finished quickly, the remaining two slices getting packed up to go because Kim Dokja said there was no way they could manage to stuff more food into their stomachs.
"We still have time, don't we?" Kim Dokja said, checking the time.
"And it's still too hot for a walk," Yoo Joonghyuk stated.
Kim Dokja wouldn't say it was that hot, it was just very sunny that day. A walk would be a very tough task with the sun in their eyes, but the heat was bearable.
"Should we go to my place?" Yoo Joonghyuk asked. "It's nearby."
Was it? Well, he did have time and if he went back home now, he'd just sit around on his phone with nothing better to do. If Yoo Joonghyuk's place was close, it shouldn't be a problem.
"Sure," Kim Dokja said. "That sounds alright."
He could just leave at half past five and then head back home, get his present for his Yoo Joonghyuk and then head over to his place. Worked just fine.
Yoo Joonghyuk's place was indeed nearby, it didn't even take fifteen minutes and once they were in his penthouse, Kim Dokja said he would put the cake in the refrigerator while Yoo Joonghyuk went in search of something.
He looked very serious, walking into his bedroom, his work room and then into the guest room and around the house until he finally emerged holding a short black ceramic vase.
Ah. . .Kim Dokja figured out what it was for within seconds.
He watched Yoo Joonghyuk flip the thing over to check for any holes and then he proceeded to fill it with water. Satisfied that nothing spilled or dripped, he gave the inside of the vase a quick rinse before filling it with water again. He placed the vase filled with water on the kitchen counter and went to fetch the flowers he had left in the living room previously.
He sure was diligent. The carefulness he showed when he slowly peeled apart the bits of tape holding the plastic wrap around the flowers together made Kim Dokja feel guilty.
Even though the plastic holding the bouquet in place was off, the flowers didn't fall over, stuck to the dark green block of floral foam that was again, wrapped in plastic and tape.
With each part that Yoo Joonghyuk pulled away to free the flowers, the bouquet looked more and more crude and Kim Dokja felt ashamed. He would have given a better gift if he'd known that Yoo Joonghyuk would act this way.
Finally, the flowers were plucked out of the foam and the sunflowers went into the vase first.
The corners of Yoo Joonghyuk's lips quirked downwards when he realised that the sunflower stems were too tall for the short vase.
"We can trim the stems," Kim Dokja said quietly.
"We should," Yoo Joonghyuk nodded seriously and entrusting Kim Dokja to supervise the flowers, he went to look for a spare pair of scissors that would cut the stems off easily.
He returned with a rather large pair of scissors, bunching up the flowers, and placing them next to the vase to get an idea of how much he had to trim. Then Yoo Joonghyuk chopped the ends of the stems off.
They went into the vase more easily this time and the yellow looked quite good in contrast to the sleek black of the ceramic. The leaves got their ends cut next and were slowly inserted into the vase through the gaps around the sunflowers.
Then came the next issue, the daises. They were too small for the vase and Yoo Joonghyuk's pleased expression turned sour immediately.
"I have an idea," said Kim Dokja and Yoo Joonghyuk turned to him with expectant eyes. . .Kim Dokja was reminded of Gilyoung and Yoosung who'd look at him with similar looks whenever they were stuck on something and he offered help.
Kim Dokja felt laughter bubble in his chest. Fighting back a smile, Kim Dokja left the side of the kitchen counter and went over to the overhead cabinet where Yoo Joonghyuk kept empty glass jars. He'd seen a few things there before.
Moving a few jars, he looked through the cabinet, aware of Yoo Joonghyuk's eyes on him.
"Found it," Kim Dokja said brightly when his hand wrapped around the empty mason jar in the back and pulled it down.
"We can put them in this and leave it on the dining table, as decoration," Kim Dokja said, unscrewing the lid off the jar.
"I'll wash it," he continued before Yoo Joonghyuk could say anything. He was trying to make up for giving such a shoddy gift. He would think of something better next time, something worth the adoration Yoo Joonghyuk was showing those flowers that would die within the week.
Rinsing out the jar, he left the lid nearby and wiped the glass jar dry before hurrying back to Yoo Joonghyuk's side.
The weak, slender stems of the daisies couldn't stand on their own in the water filled in the jar and Yoo Joonghyuk excavated an old pack of rubber bands from the bottom of one of the drawers.
It was nervewracking, Kim Dokja holding the bunch of fragile daisies with two fingers while Yoo Joonghyuk tied the rubber band around them, brows pinched in concentration. Even Kim Dokja was praying that the stems wouldn't snap or rip under the pressure of the rubber band.
Yoo Joonghyuk let go of the rubber band after three turns and both of them let out relieved sighs at the same time.
Kim Dokja couldn't help but chuckle when he caught Yoo Joonghyuk's eye.
"Can I take a photo?" Kim Dokja asked once the daisies were in the mason jar and placed in the centre of the dining table.
"Go ahead," Yoo Joonghyuk nodded. "You don't have to ask."
Kim Dokja took pictures of the flowers on the dining table and then the sunflowers in the vase. Yoo Joonghyuk even turned on all the lights in the room to give him adequate lighting for his quick photography session.
"Do you want to see?" Kim Dokja asked once he was done and with a nod Yoo Joonghyuk came over.
"They came out nice. Send them to me," said Yoo Joonghyuk and with a hum, Kim Dokja did as asked.
Swiping through the photos in his phone's gallery, Kim Dokja landed on a photo of a grasshopper.
"That's quite a large grasshopper," Yoo Joonghyuk commented.
"I know right," Kim Dokja smiled fondly at the memory of Gilyoung finding the insect in their local park recently. "That's Gilyoungie's Titano MK2."
"Interesting name," Yoo Joonghyuk said and Kim Dokja laughed.
He swiped to the next photo to show an excited Gilyoung holding up the grasshopper in his hand.
"Gilyoung likes bugs and insects and likes to collect them," Kim Dokja said. "He loves reading about them. He used to be really into dinosaurs first, but I think he likes insects more now."
"He knows quite a lot of trivia, actually," Kim Dokja moved to the next picture.
"That's Yoosung, you might already know, but...that's her. And there's Mia."
Kim Dokja noticed the shift in Yoo Joonghyuk's expression. . .Oh. . .It seemed he cared for Mia and his dislike was only reserved for the cousin who shared his name.
"I have more pics, do you want to see them?" Kim Dokja asked.
"Come on," Kim Dokja pulled out a chair at the dining table when Yoo Joonghyuk didn't answer.
Yoo Joonghyuk followed him silently and they settled at the dining table, in the chairs they usually took when Kim Dokja stayed over for dinner, except this time, the chairs were pulled closer, and bumped right up against each other.
Kim Dokja's phone was in the middle so that both of them could see the pictures easily and he gave comments about the story behind the picture as he swiped through his gallery.
"This was taken last month, at Jung Heewon's birthday. That's her," Kim Dokja pointed at the person in the centre of the group photo.
He supposed that Yoo Joonghyuk already had some idea about his friends since he had done a background check on Kim Dokja, but Kim Dokja told him about all of them anyway.
"She's really good at kendo and when she teams up with Lee Jihye—That's her, the long ponytail. They're quite something together. And a little scary, they say cutting up things is thrilling."
"From left to right, Jang Hayoung, Lee Seolhwa, your cousin, Kim Namwoon, Lee Hyunsung, Jung Heewon, Lee Jihye, Han Sooyoung and Yoo Sangah. And you know the kids, Lee Gilyoung, Yoo Mia and Shin Yoosung. I'm not in the frame because I'm usually the one taking the photo. I prefer it that way, it's fun."
"Do you take picutres, Joonghyuk-ssi?"
"Not really," Yoo Joonghyuk pulled his phone out of his pocket and unlocked it before going to his own gallery.
While Kim Dokja's gallery was full of photos of the kids and his friends, Yoo Joonghyuk's phone was filled with work-related things, little screenshots of documents, spreadsheets and emails. The recent pictures of the flowers stood out from the rest for obvious reasons.
Kim Dokja didn't know how to feel when Yoo Joonghyuk tapped on the photos of the flowers and added them to his Favourites folder that had previously been empty.
"I didn't either in the past," Kim Dokja said. "But with the kids, I thought someone ought to do something, help them form happy childhood memories, you get me?"
"Yes," Yoo Joonghyuk nodded, clicking his phone off. "I can see that you adore them. Do you like children, Dokja-ssi?"
"I don't hate them," Kim Dokja shrugged. "I'm not really the most responsible adult around and I wouldn't say I like children a lot...It's just, they reminded me of myself a little. And spending time with them, I got attached, I guess?"
Kim Dokja swiped his screen and moved to the next picture to get rid of the uncertain silence that had fallen between them.
"Oh, this was when we went to the aquarium," Kim Dokja said. "The day I had the shortest date ever. It was not even half an hour, you know?"
"Why? Not compatible?" Yoo Joonghyuk asked.
"I wouldn't know. We didn't really get to know each other. We were still going through the usual small talk when some guy came over and confessed his love to my date and whisked him off."
"That's unexpected."
"Tell me about it. They might as well have been shooting their own drama, you know. He was like 'I can, no, I will make you happy. I love you. Don't go on dates anymore, date me'," Kim Dokja recounted that day's incident.
"And everyone was looking at us. I thought I'd have to go through hours of that date, but it ended quickly. I wasn't really looking forward to it, you see. My friends just turned up at my house and dragged me out. They thought I was sulking and still suffering from my last breakup."
"Were you?" said Yoo Joonghyuk.
"Nope, I was just busy with work," Kim Dokja said simply. "I usually try to find someone else, but it's been quite a long time and I haven't really done anything, so my friends were concerned. I'd just forgotten about it, really."
"Do you always find someone after your breakups?" Yoo Joonghyuk said curiously.
Kim Dokja nodded.
"My friends think I fall in love easily and move on easily," he said. "Honestly, it's just a distraction and an excuse. I usually just use that as an excuse to not have my friends get a bit too involved in my life. I say my girlfriend or boyfriend isn't all too comfortable with them and since they want it to work out for me, they take a step back. They will complain about it though."
"Hmm."
"Not that I hate my friends or find them bothersome. They're brilliant and I love them loads," Kim Dokja added quickly. "It just . . .Sometimes it's a little suffocating."
"I can understand," said Yoo Joonghyuk. He brought a hand up and placed it on Kim Dokja's head, giving him a reassuring pat. Kim Dokja felt his face grow warm. He wasn't a kid, seriously, why did he keep doing this?
He moved his finger again to distract himself from the weight of Yoo Joonghyuk's hand on the back of his head. Yoo Joonghyuk retracted his hand when Kim Dokja moved and they went back to looking through Kim Dokja's gallery.
Kim Dokja learnt he had more picutres of the kids than he was aware. There were ones that they had snuck his phone away to take, pointless picutres of bugs and pets and the streets. He couldn't bring himself to delete them though, so he let it sit there and fill his storage.
"You don't have a profile picture, do you, Joonghyuk-ssi?" Kim Dokja said when he saw what was probably an accidental screenshot of his friends' contacts taken years ago. He was looking at Jung Heewon's old profile picture and tried to recollect what Yoo Joonghyuk's looked like.
"It was never necessary," said Yoo Joonghyuk. "You don't have one either, Dokja-ssi."
"I don't?" Kim Dokja was taken aback.
"You don't," Yoo Joonghyuk confirmed.
Kim Dokja was pretty sure he had something though. . .Hang on. . .His ex had asked him to put his profile picture as one they had taken together, and then they broke up and he couldn't really put Min Jiwon's picture because their relationship was a big secret that only her manager and his friends knew of. . .And he'd never put anything else in its place. That's why he didn't have a profile picture. Now he remembered.
Oh, well, how did it matter anyway?
"Does Uriel Noona have a profile pic? I don't think she does," Kim Dokja muttered.
"She doesn't. . .She does have one for her personal Gmail account though," Yoo Joonghyuk told him. "It's some character from a comic she likes."
"Do you have one then? For your personal GMail account?" Kim Dokja asked.
"...No," Yoo Joonghyuk said after thinking about it. "I don't think I've ever bothered about it. You?"
"It's a Gmail account. I don't care either," Kim Dokja shrugged. "Do you have social media, Joonghyuk-ssi?"
"Doesn't everybody?" was what Yoo Joonghyuk said.
Yoo Joonghyuk's phone was out again and they compared their different social media pages.
Kim Dokja wasn't expecting Yoo Joonghyuk's social media accounts to look this bland. He followed no one, and no one followed him back, not even Uriel.
Even if it was just his friends, Kim Dokja had a few people following him. He followed his friends back and a few official accounts of web novel platforms and fanart accounts.
Neither of them ever posted anything. Kim Dokja only liked his friends' posts and supported the authors he liked.
"What's your handle?" Kim Dokja muttered, glancing at Yoo Joonghyuk's phone screen, feeling a little bad.
". . .very creative," he said when he read 'YJH_0308'
"You're not much better," Yoo Joonghyuk huffed out indignantly. "Kim underscore Dokja? What about cyber security?"
"What cyber security in this age and time?" Kim Dokja scoffed, clicking the follow button on his screen. Yoo Joonghyuk's phone chimed and he accepted the request in front of Kim Dokja's eyes, and sent one back.
"And that's precisely the reason why you should focus on cyber security," Yoo Joonghyuk chided. "Information can be extracted easily. You shouldn't be careless."
"Mmh," Kim Dokja hummed dismissively. "There's not much information to steal from me anyway."
Yoo Joonghyuk kicked his leg lightly with his foot.
"That's an opinion only an ignorant fool would have," he snapped.
"Guess I'm an ignorant fool then," Kim Dokja fired back.
"That you are."
"Sarcasm's lost on you, isn't it?"
Yoo Joonghyuk levelled him with a challenging scowl and Kim Dokja glared back.
Yoo Joonghyuk was the first one to break away from their staring match, his lips quirking up in a slightly condescending smirk, his sharp eyebrows relaxing.
"Ack!" Kim Dokja squawked when Yoo Joonghyuk pinched his nose with his thumb and index finger.
"What was that for?" Kim Dokja cried, batting Yoo Joonghyuk's hand away from his face. He brought his free hand to his face, covering his nose from any further attacks as Yoo Joonghyuk snickered to himself.
"You were being careless," Yoo Joonghyuk said nonchalantly. "You had it coming."
"Had it coming, my ass," Kim Dokja grumbled. "Why, I ought to do the same for you."
"You can try," Yoo Joonghyuk's smirk widened.
"...hah, this jerk."
Yoo Joonghyuk raised an eyebrow.
"Don't you think you're being a bit too smug?" Kim Dokja said, affronted at Yoo Joonghyuk's audacity to look so very pleased with himself.
"No," the man said rather snobbishly. "Like I said, you can try if you're confident."
Kim Dokja felt his eye twitch.
He saw Yoo Joonghyuk's hand move, and he dropped his phone onto his lap and clamped both hands over his nose tightly. Not again. Fuck that.
Yoo Joonghyuk let out a snort.
"Screw you," Kim Dokja said, his voice muffled by his hands.
Kim Dokja carefully, moved one hand away from his face, the other still protecting his nose. He just really wanted to get back at Yoo Joonghyuk and he happened to know a trick that got Han Sooyoung quite often.
Sure, he ended up getting a kick to the butt and treated to brutal curses every time he did that, but it still did its part.
He moved his hand and Yoo Joonghyuk pulled his head back, thinking that Kim Dokja was trying to do the same as he had done.
See, it always worked. Kim Dokja changed course in an instant and stabbed his finger hard into Yoo Joonghyuk's unguarded side of his stomach.
A pained gasp escaped Kim Dokja's mouth and he pulled back his hand immediately,
"What the fuck?" he snarled, nursing his injured finger. It felt like he had just rammed his finger into a brick at full force, and the poor thing had bent at an awkward angle.
Yoo Joonghyuk simply watched him, his smirk still in place on his stupidly handsome face, completely unfazed.
"...stupid hard muscles," Kim Dokja snarled through gritted teeth.
"You're just too weak," Yoo Joonghyuk said a bit too happily.
Kim Dokja brought his other hand down to press down on his throbbing finger.
"I think I know what you meant now," he said, a little petty. "I'd want to put a hit on you too."
"Pfft—"
"Stop laughing."
Kim Dokja groaned and slapped Yoo Joonghyuk's arm when Yoo Joonghyuk took advantage of his unguarded nose and pinched it again.
"You!—You, stop that!" Kim Dokja smacked Yoo Joonghyuk's arm, though he wondered if the man even felt that through his damn well-built muscles. "If I wasn't likely to break my own bones, I'd have socked you right about now."
"And that's the thing, isn't it?" Yoo Joonghyuk only laughed harder.
Kim Dokja flinched back when he saw Yoo Joonghyuk's hand move again, but Yoo Joonghyuk placed it back on his head.
Kim Dokja felt like it was an insult to his height. Oh, sorry, he wasn't a six-foot telephone pole! He didn't have the best childhood and his access to healthy food was a little limited for years. He wasn't too short though, this was ridiculous. He knew people who were shorter than him.
"You're endearing," Yoo Joonghyuk said, petting his head and Kim Dokja slammed the brakes on his indignant thoughts.
. . .huh?
"You're not seriously hurt, are you?"
Kim Dokja found his voice and managed to say, "...no. I'm fine."