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Kim Dokja was a lying liar who loved to lie. And that's why Han Sooyoung did not believe absolute shit of the words the ugly squid was spewing in front of her.
"So, you're telling me," She started slowly, enunciating her words to show her skepticism in what she would like to call her I-Smell-Bullshit-And-It's-Coming-From-You tone of voice. "That you can't go to our high school reunion with me because…?"
"I have a date with my boyfriend." The shameless liar repeated his lie shamelessly. Not even blinking as he did.
"Right." She gritted out. "Your… boyfriend. "
"Yup."
"A man. That you, Kim Dokja, are dating."
"Uh-huh."
"You have a date with this man whom you are saying you are seeing."
"Right-O."
Han Sooyoung narrowed her eyes. Kim Dokja remained unfazed.
Damn, he's good.
"Why have I never heard of this supposed boyfriend of yours?" She asked, deciding to change tactics.
"You never asked." The bastard shrugged. Han Sooyoung could feel her eyes twitch.
"How convenient for you." She bit out.
Kim Dokja raised an eyebrow at her. As if she's the insane one in this conversation! He didn't really think she believed him, did he?
"Look, are we done here? My lunch break's about to end."
Han Sooyoung glanced at the wall clock on the corner of the office. Sure enough, there were only a few more minutes until break ended. She huffed in annoyance.
I can't believe I wasted my lunch getting bold-faced lied to, she thought.
She turned back to the man who was already turning on his computer from its sleep. The other office workers were already coming back in as well.
"You're really not coming to the reunion?" She asked one last time.
"Nope. My boyfriend will be very pissed if I cancel on him. He said he had a surprise."
And wow , the squid was really good at acting. Just look at that fond smile! If Han Sooyoung didn't know him for the liar he was, she would've fallen for it. Maybe he should quit his job here and aim for the Oscar's.
"You know what?" She stood up from where she was sitting on his desk. " Fine. I'll just go with Yoo Sangah. Have fun with your very real, totally not imaginary boyfriend ."
Kim Dokja just grinned amusedly at her outburst.
"Thanks, Sooyoung-ah. I'll tell him you said hi."
Han Sooyoung groaned as she looked to the heavens for patience. Realizing the heavens didn't care for her problems because she was still very much annoyed and one push away from strangling the man in front of her, she turned around to return to her side of the building. And all the while, the squid's annoying laughter followed her.
Han Sooyoung thought it was a one time thing. Because Kim Dokja was a liar who frequently lied to back out from any form of social gathering, but he never recycled the same excuse twice. He'd say he can't come to her cousin's birthday party because he had food poisoning, and the next he'd say he can't come to a concert with her because his pet rock got run over by a truck and he was mourning him.
So, suffice it to say, she was confused and irritated when "because my boyfriend" became his go-to excuse.
"Did you finally run out of ideas?" She glared at him. The man had just refused an invitation from his co-workers to go out drinking because apparently, it was his 6th monthsary with his boyfriend.
Kim Dokja turned away from watching his co-workers leave and gave her a quizzical look. "What are we talking about?"
Han Sooyoung looked at him as if he was a psychopath because, really? He's still not going to admit to his lies? "Dude."
"What?" Kim Dokja grabbed his bag and stood up from his desk.
"There's something very wrong with you."
Her liar of a best friend rolled his eyes as he started making his way out the office as well. Han Sooyoung followed to walk by his side. "Yes, and you say that all the time. What is it now?"
She pressed the down button for the elevator as they stopped in front of it. "Sixth monthsary? Really?" She turned to him as they waited, skepticism and annoyance leaking into her tone. "How come I've never heard of this man if you've been dating for six months?! "
The bastard just shrugged in the way that always managed to piss off Han Sooyoung because it was always followed by one of his bad ideas. "Again, you didn't ask. And also because I told him I wanted to make sure our relationship was stable before we started announcing it to anyone."
"The fuck?"
Kim Dokja raised an eyebrow at her. The elevator dinged as the doors opened. They both stepped in.
"Hold the doors." A gruff voice called from around the corner. And Kim Dokja held the doors open for fucking Yoo Joonghyuk to step in to the elevator with them.
Han Sooyoung gave a tiny bow to the man more for show than anything before she turned to Kim Dokja and glared. She was going to keep her mouth shut right now but as soon as they were alone again, she'd keep badgering him. Surely, he wasn't going to keep lying to her like this?
They went down the floors in relative silence. And when the doors opened to the ground floor and they stepped into the lobby, Han Sooyoung rounded towards Kim Dokja once again.
"Yah! I've had enough of your—"
"Hold that thought Sooyoung-ah. I think I forgot something in the office."
Han Sooyoung watched in bewilderment as the menace fully cut her off, even having the audacity to not even wait for a reply as he stepped right back into the elevator.
"And you can go home without me! My boyfriend's picking me up, anyways." He said as he pushed a button, and the doors closed on his smirking face.
Han Sooyoung wanted to scream .
She whirled around and accidentally made eye contact with Yoo Joonghyuk, who was still standing beside the building entrance for some unknown reason. Han Sooyoung raised an eyebrow at him. The resident heartthrob of the R&D department kept eye contact for a second longer before turning away to look down at his phone.
Weirdo, Han Sooyoung thought before she made her way out the building and started walking towards her car.
As she made her way home, she made it her new mission to make Kim Dokja admit to his lies.
"I've heard our Dokja got himself a boyfriend." Uriel said in lieu of a greeting, sneaking up on her from behind.
Han Sooyoung turned around on her desk chair to face her. She didn't even want to question what she was doing here in the middle of office hours. Not to mention, who the fuck she was exactly, as Sooyoung's already done plenty of questioning without getting any answers from the eccentric woman. (It was a question no one knew the answer to. Uriel wasn't even a worker here but for some reason, she's always going around departments and sneaking up on unsuspecting office workers. There were rumors that she was actually someone really high up in the company, but no one has been able to confirm anything.)
"Where the fuck did you hear that?"
"From Dokja himself! Isn't this exciting?!" She cheered, completely forgetting to tone down her volume. But despite it, the people around them barely bat an eye, so used to her confusing but familiar presence by now.
And oh . Oh . Kim Dokja has taken this too far.
He had lied to Uriel. He lied to Uriel . And no one lied to Uriel. No one did anything remotely bad towards Uriel. Because yes, she was weird as fuck, but she was an angel and no person with even an ounce of decency could ever attempt to do anything to hurt her.
Especially Kim Dokja— Kim Dokja, who was inarguably Uriel's favorite person. And Han Sooyoung always thought the squid held the same affection towards her, that although he was a certified bastard, he would never do anything against her.
But now he had lied to her. And it's the same lie he's been saying for the past week. Han Sooyoung could not let it slide anymore.
So, she smiled at Uriel before whipping out her phone.
[ okay, u bastard. when i see u later, u better be fucking ready bcuz im coming for ur ass.]
She pocketed her phone again, ignoring the buzzing of notifications that followed, no doubt from the squid himself.
"Don't worry, you adorable weirdo." Han Sooyoung said as she looked up at Uriel once again. "I'll make him pay for lying to you."
Uriel smiled confusedly, tilting her head to the side. "Huh?"
"Don't worry about it."
Han Sooyoung can't wait to make the squid squirm.
She was coming back from the photocopying machine when she stumbled upon a Kim Dokja in the wild.
Her liar of a best friend was just coming out of a conference room he had no business being in (weird) and looking disheveled (weird) . His necktie was skewed, and two of his buttons were open, not to mention his hair was tousled like the wind had it out for him.
She was just about to call out to his dumbass, when another person came out of the room. Yoo Joonghyuk . ( Definitely weird).
Kim Dokja turned around as he fussed over his buttons, and accidentally met Han Sooyoung's narrowed eyes.
"O-oh," Kim Dokja stuttered, and Kim Dokja never stuttered. "Hi, Sooyoung-ah! What are you doing here?"
"Why are you two together?" She asked, cutting through his bullshit.
Kim Dokja smiled in the way he always does when he was about to skirt around the truth. "Nothing. Yoo Joonghyuk-ssi here just needed my input on the new product line."
"Really?" She deadpanned. "Yoo Joonghyuk, the prodigy of the R&D department, asking you, a random guy at Finance, for advice on a product line?"
"Y-yeah."
"In an empty conference room? With only the two of you?"
"It's top secret, so…"
Han Sooyoung turned to face a bored-looking Yoo Joonghyuk behind her best friend. She raised an eyebrow at him in question. He just shrugged. "What he said."
Well, that's convincing . She scoffed as she shook her head. "Right. Whatever. I should've known this company was full of weirdos." She said the last part more to herself.
Kim Dokja chuckled nervously at that. For someone who lied so often, he did a terrible job at it. And Yoo Joonghyuk, who seemed to have enough of just standing around there through the conversation between a liar and his skeptical best friend, turned to said liar.
"I'll be going now, Kim Dokja…ssi. Thank you for the advice." Han Sooyoung noted the weird pause in the middle of his sentence.
"Right. See you around, Hyu—Joonghyuk-ssi."
The tall, brooding man nodded curtly, his hand reaching out momentarily towards Kim Dokja before he clenched it around air. It was awkward and weird and Han Sooyoung wondered if she was actually living in an alternate version of reality where everything was just a tad bit more nonsensical.
The two of them watched as Yoo Joonghyuk turned and walked away, his every step confident and graceful and infuriatingly perfect in exuding his charisma. Han Sooyoung found herself hoping the guy would trip on air just so she could feel better with the knowledge that no person could be as two dimensionally attractive. (Two dimensional in a sense that there was no way the guy was real and not even a celebrity.)
They watched him disappear around a corner before they turned to each other.
"Since when were you friends with fucking Yoo Joonghyuk?" Han Sooyoung asked curiously.
"I don't know. A few months ago?"
There was a pause as she contemplated this new information. And then she glared at the squid as she remembered something more important than the weird maybe -friendship between the squid and the sunfish.
"Hey, you fucking bastard! You lied to Uriel, didn't you?!"
"What—Hey! Stop that!"
Han Sooyoung did not stop hitting her lying best friend with the stack of printouts she was holding until they were crumpled beyond any use. She made him reprint them after.
After that, Han Sooyoung discovered how surprisingly frequent those two were together. For two people on opposite sides of the company building, they were suspiciously close. She wondered how she had missed the fact that they were apparently close enough to eat lunches together.
Like right now, she had come into the Finance office to drag Kim Dokja into eating a proper lunch with her when she found she was already beaten to it by Yoo Joonghyuk. Kim Dokja was just standing up from his desk, reluctance clear on his face, while the taller man had a hand on his elbow. Han Sooyoung noted how unexpectedly gentle the famously stoic man was handling her best friend. From the rumors of his charming personality, she would have thought he despised making any human contact whatsoever. Well, rumors are often exaggerated, she reasoned.
"Hey, squid." She greeted as she walked up to them. "The cafeteria has pork cutlet today."
"Oh, Sooyoung-ah!" Kim Dokja turned to her with a tad more surprise than what was necessary. "Yoo Joonghyuk-ssi and I were just about to head there as well."
She glanced at the scowling man for a second before shrugging to herself. "'Kay. I'll tag along." Han Sooyoung wondered if she had imagined Yoo Joonghyuk's scowl deepening.
"Sure!" Dokja replied easily, and they made their way to the cafeteria downstairs.
When they arrived there, Han Sooyoung paused as she realized Kim Dokja wasn't following her towards the cashier.
"Oh, I brought lunch today." He explained when he saw her looking at him quizzically.
Huh, Han Sooyoung thought, never thought I'd see the day .
"Fine, suit yourself." She shrugged and took note of the table the two sat at before buying herself her lunch.
"You guys have the same lunch?" She asked as she sat down with her tray of food.
"Hmm." Kim Dokja hummed through bites of his food (which he definitely did not prepare himself).
"You cooked for him?" Han Sooyoung asked Yoo Joonghyuk who had his eyes on Kim Dokja. The stoic man turned to her before nodding once.
"Sure." Weird answer.
"Joonghyuk-ssi likes cooking and he shares them with me sometimes." Kim Dokja explained, sheepish for some fucking reason.
"I see…" Han Sooyoung decided to drop the confounding case of the unlikely friendship between the two. She didn't want another migraine after all. She's been having a lot of those these past few weeks. (She suspected a certain squid to be the cause of them.) "By the way, I ran into Jaehwan-sunbae recently."
Han Sooyoung expected Kim Dokja choking on a bite of his chicken. What she didn't expect was the narrow-eyed glare she got from Yoo Joonghyuk. What the fuck?
"O-oh?" Kim Dokja looked nervous more than he was flustered, sneaking a glance at the man next to him.
"Yeah. Asked about you actually." Han Sooyoung shrugged away the weirdness (she was getting good at that). "Oh, Jaehwan-sunbae is this squid's ex, by the way." She explained to the other man, trying to include him in the conversation. Because if Yoo Joonghyuk was Dokja's friend then that meant they'd continue meeting each other and she quite preferred to be civil.
"I know." Yoo Joonghyuk said gruffly.
Huh. Okay.
"Anyways!" Kim Dokja squeaked. "How long has it been since I last saw him? Gosh, I can't even remember like, wow . It's been such a long time."
Han Sooyoung looked at him like he just said he loved tomatoes. "Sure." She replied slowly, not wanting to have any part in his crazy.
"What did the bas—this Jaehwan want?"
Han Sooyoung blinked at Yoo Joonghyuk. That might have been the longest thing he'd said to her. "Uh, I think he just wanted to know how the squid was doing? Oh! He said he'd love to catch up though." She said, turning to Kim Dokja once more. "I think he's single right now." She grinned.
Kim Dokja looked horrified, which wasn't the reaction she was hoping for. Yoo Joonghyuk twitched minutely and she wondered if he was having a spasm.
"What?" She asked, a bit wrong-footed.
"Nothing." Kim Dokja said quickly. "Catching up sounds nice. Maybe I could ask my boyfriend to come with me." Yoo Joonghyuk turned to him. "Or maybe not."
Han Sooyoung rolled her eyes. "Don't tell me you're going to use your boyfriend excuse again. Kim Dokja, this is getting old."
Yoo Joonghyuk frowned. "Boyfriend excuse?"
The squid sighed. "Sooyoung-ah thinks I'm lying."
"Are you sure you don't want to meet Jaehwan-sunbae? You told me you guys were still friends the last time you spoke to each other." Because Kim Dokja might be a menace and a certified bastard, but she still wanted her best friend to be happy with someone. Someone real . And Jaehwan-sunbae has always had a soft spot for him even after they broke up when the older man had to go to the military.
Kim Dokja looked veritably afraid for his life now as his posture stiffened. "Uh, yeah, no thanks."
Han Sooyoung looked at him for a beat longer before shrugging and going back to eating. "Whatever then."
Han Sooyoung didn't say anymore. Instead, she watched, a bit fascinated and a lot confused, as Yoo Joonghyuk stared at Kim Dokja with a frown on his face as said man seemed to make an effort not to meet the other's eyes.
These two are so fucking weird, Han Sooyoung thought. Maybe that's why they're friends.
Han Sooyoung had debated with herself for 2 days before she decided to extend an invitation to Yoo Joonghyuk. She knew he was friends with the squid, but she wasn't really sure if he was close enough to be warranted an invitation to the surprise party she had planned for his birthday. In the end, she decided that, fuck it, Kim Dokja didn't have a lot of friends anyways. Might as well.
Inviting him was one thing, but him agreeing to come was another matter entirely. To be quite honest, she didn't think he'd agree to go. He just seemed like the type to despise any kind of social gathering. Maybe it was a testament to how close he was to Kim Dokja if he actually agreed to interact with people outside of his work hours.
So, here the two of them were now, on their way back to her apartment with Lee Gilyoung and Shin Yoosung in the backseat. They had picked up the kids straight from their elementary school, their parents already having been informed. Han Sooyoung was surprised once again when she found out that the kids already knew who Yoo Joonghyuk was.
Although the two kids scowled when they saw him on the passenger seat (" What's he doing here?" "Why are you here, ahjussi?") , it meant they felt comfortable enough to act cheeky in front of the man. Han Sooyoung wondered when they met, and she realized that if the squid had already introduced his kids to the man, they were probably a lot closer than she initially suspected.
They arrived at her building. And as they opened the door to her apartment unit, the sounds from the others immediately greeted them.
"They're here!" Yoo Sangah announced and greetings flew around.
Lee Hyunsung and Jung Heewon took the kids and made them settle down on the living room. Han Sooyoung led Yoo Joonghyuk there as well. Uriel bounded towards them like an excited puppy, followed behind by Aileen and Jang Hayoung who introduced themselves to the man.
After a while, the greetings and introductions were done and they waited patiently for the star of the day to arrive.
30 minutes later, there was the sound of the doorbell. Everyone else but Han Sooyoung hid themselves from immediate sight. She opened the door and there was the squid, oblivious as always as if she didn't do this every year. He always forgot his birthday and it was her ongoing mission to beat that pathetic tendency out of him.
"I brought the ice cream. But I swear to the gods, if you decide to play Shrek one more time, I'm going to revoke your coffee crumble ice cream privileges—" Kim Dokja paused as he stepped into the living room.
"Surprise!" Kim Dokja dropped the paper bag he was holding and it would've hit the floor if it wasn't for Han Sooyoung's reflexes.
"Wha— Fuck shit ! Is it today?" Her best friend groaned as he buried his face in embarrassment. The kids giggled and he blushed redder when he realized he had just cursed in front of them.
Han Sooyoung rolled her eyes. "I guess I won this year too." She said smugly as she shoulder checked him and made way for her refrigerator, storing the ice cream Kim Dokja bought.
When she came back from the kitchen, Kim Dokja was wearing a party hat, the kids hanging off his arms as the rest of him got buried in wrapping paper. Han Sooyoung would never admit this but the sound of the squid's laughter, surrounded by his friends', made her smile.
"Make way for the cake, you animals!" She announced as she stepped back into the living room.
As they sang happy birthday, Han Sooyoung caught sight of Yoo Joonghyuk—who was looking at Kim Dokja with uncharacteristic softness, like the squid was something precious.
Something clicked in her mind then.
Huh.
It didn't surprise her as much as it probably should have when she stumbled upon Kim Dokja and Yoo Joonghyuk making out next to the office's coffee machine.
She sighed heavily, regretting every decision she had made in her life to land her to this exact moment. Kim Dokja startled at the sound of it, catching her eyes, and immediately trying to push off Yoo Joonghyuk. The taller man caging him in against the counter chased after him even as he pulled away.
Han Sooyoung wanted to gag at the display of clinginess.
"S-Sooyoung!" Kim Dokja flustered, trying to appear innocent even as his disheveled appearance gave him away.
"So, I take it this is the second time I caught you guys?"
"Wha—huh?"
"I meant, I bet you weren't discussing new products in the conference room with only the two of you."
Kim Dokja blushed. It was something she never wanted to see him do. She made a face.
"You guys are disgusting." She shoved Yoo Joonghyuk out of the way as she made her way to the coffee machine.
"You could've just walked away." She heard the fucker grumble under his breath. Exhibitionist Asshole.
"You knew?"
Han Sooyoung turned to the squid who was looking uncharacteristically timid as he tried to straighten his messed up tie.
"Well, you guys weren't really subtle. And honestly, I would've put two and two together much earlier if it wasn't so unbelievable." She stirred her cup of coffee and took a sip.
Kim Dokja huffed. "Excuse you. It's not unbelievable."
She looked him in the eyes. "Kim Dokja, I say this as your friend, you have like, zero game." He gasped in mock offense. "I bet Yoo Joonghyuk was the one who confessed."
"You're right." Said man shrugged as he wrapped an arm around the pouting squid's waist. Kim Dokja leaned into him, Yoo Joonghyuk placed a kiss on top of his hair. It was done with such familiarity, she couldn't help but feel like she was intruding on something intimate.
"Right." She said with a grimace (she was always the type of person to feel murderous urges in front of happy, insufferable couples and she had a hunch that these two were exactly those type of people). "I'm gonna leave you guys to it then. Try not to get fired."
Before she could successfully escape the sappiness of the two morons in love, Dokja spoke up. "You believe me now, Sooyoung-ah?"
She turned to face him, one hand on the door frame while the other tightened its grip on her mug. The bastard had a shit-eating grin on his face, the earlier expression of embarrassment completely wiped off. Han Sooyoung felt her murderous urges quadruple.
"Sure." She gritted out before turning and walking out of there, ignoring Kim Dokja's amused laughter.
The bastard might be laughing now but Sooyoung knew someone who would absolutely love this juicy piece of information.
Sooyoung grinned.
She can't wait to tell Uriel.
OMAKE:
Dokja was still chuckling when Sooyoung left the break room like her ass was on fire. He wouldn't say this to her out loud, but messing with her these past few weeks had become the highlight of his day. He would've felt bad about it if he hadn't lived through years of what she liked to call 'bullying with love'. Dokja thought this was an appropriate enough revenge.
His breath hitched when he felt Yoo Joonghyuk nibble on his earlobe, effectively snapping him out of his thoughts. He gripped his boyfriend's toned arm still wrapped tightly around his waist.
"No." Dokja said firmly even as Joonghyuk started trailing kisses down his neck. "We are not doing this again."
"Hmm...Why not?"
Dokja spluttered. "We literally just got caught by Sooyoung!"
"And? She's not here anymore."
Dokja sighed heavily. His lover was so clingy, no one would believe him if he said the stoic Yoo Joonghyuk was like an overgrown puppy in private.
He turned so he was facing Yoo Joonghyuk and wrapped his arms around the other's neck. The taller man immediately took this as permission and caught his lips in a deep kiss. Kim Dokja went along with it for a bit, trying desperately not to get swept away.
He pulled back when he started feeling dangerously hot and chuckled when he heard his lover groan.
"Come on, we can't be caught again."
Yoo Joonghyuk groaned once more, burying his face in the crook of Dokja's neck as he hugged him tighter. "We should just quit our jobs."
Kim Dokja raised an amused eyebrow at the pouting adult man clinging to him. "Oh? And what'll you suppose we'll do for a living?"
"We can make our own company, and we'll be our own boss. No one will fire us then."
Kim Dokja laughed at the absurdity of his lover before his smile turned fond. "You're so cute, Hyuk-ie. But we really have to get going now."
Yoo Joonghyuk stubbornly bit his shoulder once and tightened his hold momentarily before letting go. Dokja patted his head for his efforts at self-control (no matter how lacking they were).
"You'll have plenty of me when we get back home, Hyuk-ie." He assured the other as he moved to leave the break room.
"...Promise?"
And Kim Dokja, who had his back turned to his lover and therefore could not see dark eyes filled with barely held back desire, foolishly agreed. "Promise."
fin .