Chapter Text
He woke up the next morning following his usual routine. He took a quick shower and went downstairs for something to eat before changing into his formal clothes. He always did this routine before the cleaning staff arrived and before any member of the family woke up. To his surprise, light was coming through under the living room door. Weird, Javier had insomnia, but he should be getting a few hours of sleep by now.
He opened the door and found Lloyd lying down on the big sofa with an old-looking book in his hands. Lloyd looked at him and rolled his eyes.
“Seriously, do you sleep four hours every day? That can’t be healthy, Suho.”
He entered the room, closing the door behind him. Despite the animosity behind the question, Lloyd looked relaxed.
“Old habits. I'm sleeping more thanks to Javier.”
“Yeah, how much? Four hours fifteen minutes?”
He sat on the free space of the sofa, at Lloyd's feet. Neither of them was small by any means, the sofa was simply too big. He had never seen all the family occupy it.
“Five hours. And for your information, I'm sleeping more than Javier. Why don't you pester him for once, uh? This is preferential treatment. Hey, wait, what are you doing awake so early?”
Lloyd put down the book and raised an eyebrow at him. “What do you mean by that?”
“Well you are usually sleeping at this-”
“Not- I fell asleep too early idiot! And I was asking about Javier, dumbass!”
He tilted his head, confused. “He has the worst case of insomnia, like, ever? He sleeps as little or even less than I. What? You didn't know?”
He was taken aback by Lloyd's serious expression. “He shouldn't. After the incident, Mother and Father took him to therapy. He was supposed to- he shouldn't have problems sleeping.”
“By incident, do you mean the tragedy where Javier lost his parents?”
Lloyd groaned, the sudden change from serious to annoyed astonished him. “Come on, you even use the same vocabulary that Javier’s social media manager uses on his promotions.”
He blushed immediately. “I- I don't know what you are talking about!”
Lloyd threw his book at him; it hit the cushions instead. The title was… in German?
“Don't insult me. Javier never told you his last name or that he wasn't officially adopted, but you knew that beforehand. And his whole background is on social media anyway,| it's not hard to find information about him. Ironic considering the bodyguard shit.”
He shifted in his place uncomfortably. He straightened his back, put his fisted hands over his tights and looked anywhere but at Lloyd. His face was so hot, and that only made him feel even more embarrassed. Lloyd kicked him with his good leg a few times.
“Come on, I haven't told him anything, and I'm sure everyone else thinks I was the one who put you up to date. Chill.”
He relaxed at those words, feeling comforted. He looked at Lloyd, his friend, what a good soul he was. Even his smile was reassuring.
“Thanks.”
He said with honest gratitude, and Lloyd, the bastard he thought was a friend, smiled viciously. Lloyd’s features were contouring into a devilish sight.
“And I haven't told him either that you follow him on all of his social media and like every post. Yes, I saw it. Yes, I know.”
A few minutes later, the household staff entered the room and found him over Lloyd while trying to strangle him, and Lloyd was barely keeping him away.
They decided on a tactical truce and went upstairs, embarrassed about being caught fighting like children.
He changed into another new suit and went downstairs with a mission in mind. He was resolute to stop Lloyd from telling a single thing to Javier, or even worse than that… Julian.
He entered the living room and found the entire family except for Lloyd eating breakfast. Julian was sitting at one corner, and Javier was next to him. He made a beeline to the empty seat near Javier, said good morning and served himself black coffee. He had secured an advantageous position.
Lloyd entered the room as he was finishing his first cup of coffee. Lloyd was also ready to go.
“Javier.”
Lloyd called as he walked to the centre of the living room. Fuck, does he tackle Javier? No, that would scream suspicious! Javier looked at his older brother with curiosity, Lloyd pointed to the door that led to the garden.
“Come with me.” Lloyd quickly turned to look at him. “For fucks sake, chill! I was messing with you, fucking idiot!”
Suho relaxed, that attitude was comforting. At this point, he spoke Lloyd fluently enough to understand the true meaning behind those words. It roughly translated to ‘I have kept your fucking stupid secret all this time I'm not going to say anything now. Unless you continue to piss me off with that shitty attitude. Fuck. Off. Suho!’ He was safe for now. Javier raised an eyebrow at Lloyd but left what remained of his breakfast to follow his adoptive brother outside.
Suho served himself another cup of coffee, abstinently watching the pair sitting at a small tea table.
“What was that?”
Suho glanced at Julian, the little devil was eating toast with avocado, scrambled eggs and tomatoes. Suho was going to eat something similar, but he would add oregano to make the combination better and original.
“That-” He grabbed a toast and began making something else, he wanted jam. “Is something between your brother and me.”
“Is that mysterious matter the reason why the household staff found you two fighting this morning?” Mrs Marbella asked, amused.
He continued eating with all the dignity that the blush on his face allowed. “Yes, it is.”
He glanced outside. Did they seem more tense, or was he seeing things? Javier crossed his arms, raised his chin and said something to Lloyd. Lloyd hunched a bit, like he did when he tried not to explode. Lloyd said something and stood up. He pointed at Javier with an index finger before starting to walk back inside.
To his surprise Javier stood up startled, then he ran past Lloyd, crouched slightly and grabbed Lloyd like a sack of potatoes over his left shoulder. Lloyd’s crutch fell to the ground, and a surprised older brother looked at the back of Javier’s head in utter shock. Javier began to walk away from the house while ignoring Lloyd's punches to his back. Before they lost sight of them, Lloyd screamed something before biting Javier’s head so hard that the silver-haired man flinched, but Javier continued to walk away regardless of the pain. ‘What was that?’
“What was that?”
Mr Arcos echoed his thoughts. The simple question was very popular this morning. He realised all eyes were on him.
“Don't look at me, I don't know either.”
They continued eating while making small talk, they had some time before having to head out. Whatever happened outside somehow wasn't the most abnormal or worrying thing about this family. Suho wondered if he had acclimatised himself to their eccentric ways.
Ten minutes later, Javier came back carrying an angry Lloyd bridal style. He let him down gently and handed Lloyd the forgotten crutch. Javier had to immediately dodge a swing to his head. Lloyd huffed and entered the house followed by Javier. Both looked their usual, Lloyd was annoyed and Javier was as expressionless as usual.
“So…”
Julian observed his adopted brother while Javier sat and served himself some tea. Lloyd sat in front of him, beside his mother. He turned his head slightly to the left to avoid her gaze and served himself coffee with milk. Black coffee gave Lloyd a stomachache.
“Are you going to tell-”
“No.” Said Javier and Lloyd at the same time.
“Come on! All of you have secrets!” Julian sulked, and as the typical teenager he was, he took out his phone to distract himself.
“Anything to worry about?” Asked Mr Arcos with caution. Maybe he was starting to realise that he needed to have more tact with his sons?
“No, everything is fine.” Javier answered softly.
All eyes fell on Lloyd, even Julian took a moment to look at his brother. Maybe Lloyd would fall under peer pressure. Lloyd hid behind his cup of coffee and looked outside the garden. Ok, maybe he won't fall under peer pressure.
They finished breakfast and let the staff to clean and organise everything. Suho had been reassured since the first time he shared a meal with the Fronteras that no food was wasted, all leftovers were shared with anyone who wanted a snack, household staff and guards included. And thus, it was not necessary that he tried to hoard it all and eat it on his own in his efforts to not waste food.
They can't blame him for trying the first time he ate here. All that leftover food was a crime! But at least he knew they weren't wasteful. To be fair, Suho would happily eat the leftovers of the Fronteras, he would save so much on food! Not that he is paying right now, but you know, if he worked here as part of the staff… He totally, 100%, would.
They left, and Suho relaxed on the car ride. Everything was going alright, it was a nice normal morning (for Frontera family standards), and compared to yesterday, this trip was so relaxing. He had a good feeling about today.
As soon as they separated and Mr Arcos and Javier went to their office, Suho remembered that they may have made a scene yesterday. At least he wasn't the only one visibly uncomfortable, Elisa and Jin were his unwilling companions for today.
“Don’t look! You don't want that alcoholic to get mad at you.”
“With that bad temper everyone is done for. Not even our extraordinary rookie can help us.”
“I can't believe someone so capable almost got fired because of that piece of trash.”
“How have we come to this? He will get his father to fire anyone who angers him?”
The whispers at least tried to be subtle, but the silence formed when they passed towards the elevator made them easy to hear. As usual, people got out of the way when they saw Lloyd and the elevator was emptied to let the problematic son of the CEO ride it alone.
The doors of the elevator closed. Lloyd was looking ahead of him with a deadpan expression, but Suho knew that expression was directed at them.
“Just to be clear, are you aware this is your fault?”
Lloyd asked and they said yes, like little kids being scolded by their mother.
“Are you going to make another scene and make it worse or let it slide?”
They answered that they would let it slide. Mother-Lloyd speared them from their misery and hummed but said nothing more related to the whispers they just heard. Good grief, how did yesterday's events turn from Lloyd being the only person who wanted son of a bitch Bob to keep his miserable job to Lloyd wanting fucking Bob fired? Gossip was something to be afraid of.
They continued their work as usual. Bayern was working as their middle man with Bob and finished implementing any last changes to human resources protocols and their organisation. According to the email Bayern sent, human resources was the first department to finish preparations, and Bob said he would be ready for any new instructions.
Bayern also mentioned that human resources was trying with little success to clarify the new rumours surrounding Lloyd and that apparently other departments were behind the misunderstanding. Sadly, their efforts were futile as the situation was already beyond control. Lloyd sighed and answered by email that he didn't care, although the tired expression on his face said otherwise.
“Hey, maybe we can do something to help improve your image?” He asked, hoping to cheer him up. He did not expect gossip to get so out of hand in this company.
Lloyd denied. “No, don't worry, this will last a day or two, it always does. If you do something now you will only add fuel to the fire. Believe me, I have tried. With gossip it's best to let it die on its own, they will be talking about something else soon.”
Lloyd stayed in their office the rest of the day while he went to check the remaining pending departments in the building. If he focused on the good side of things, tomorrow they would be visiting the subsidiaries, maybe they would have a better time there.
At least their lunch was cheerful. Some of Javier's employees - the ones who took part in the tournament - came to eat with them at their office. They even brought junk food to share, and Lloyd’s old team visited too. Suho was delighted to trash-talk everyone who gave in to the gossip with John and Lucy. The pair sucked at trash-talking people, but at least they got a few snorts out of Lloyd, and stupid Brad joined Lloyd and the card game-loving gang. They began making plans to try more card-based games. The game Munchkin was recommended a lot.
All in all, Suho was pleasantly surprised about the support. He suspected that Javier had something to do with his employees showing so much attention to Lloyd since day one, but besides that, it was clear that Lloyd wasn't the only one that liked games in this office. And his old team wasn't as bad as he expected them to be, although, he admits he tends to expect the worst of the worst from people.
He left for a few minutes, leaving Lloyd and other employees to talk about more card games. It seems that Lloyd didn't know about most of the games being mentioned, and he was listening with honest interest. Yosef, one of Javier’s employees, followed.
“Aren't you in ‘lunch time’? You know, free time?”
Yosef smiled politely, he expressed himself with the same good manners he had shown during their match.
“Not really. I’m supposed to be in charge during this hour, Boss asked me to be subtle because his brother doesn't like being guarded. I will accompany you outside just in case. Can I trust you to keep this a secret?”
Suho hummed. “Depends. I get why Javier wants Lloyd to be ‘guarded’, but why me too?”
“I thought Boss explained it to you.”
Suho shrugged. “And maybe I want to hear it from you.”
They stopped at the elevator; they were alone but neither pressed any button. He turned back to face his temporary personal bodyguard.
“I don’t like being ‘guarded’ either. So, why are you here?”
Yosef observed him for a moment. He wasn't sure what he was looking for or if he had found it.
“My apologies, Mr Kim. As you must be aware, you weren't the objective during the latest incident, regardless, due to your striking resemblance to Mr Lloyd Frontera and our lack of information on the contracted perpetrators, I advise that you allow me to accompany you to get your coffee. It's just a preoccupation. I hope you understand.”
“Come on, kid! Don't be so harsh with security! It's not like you are under house arrest.”
John appeared out of nowhere and passed an arm around his shoulders, pulling him close. Agh! Cursed Europeans and their lack of personal space awareness!
“And think about it this way, the kid would be sad if something happened to you because you were stubborn enough to not be accompanied by ONE bodyguard when you went for coffee.”
Suho shrugged John off him. “I know that I only wanted to hear it from him.”
Suho pressed the button and ignored John's gentle laugh.
“You weren't kidding about being distrustful. You must really like the kid then.”
The elevator arrived and Suho entered, ignoring how Yosef nodded while agreeing with John. He was going to make John work extra hard; he only needed to keep Lloyd unaware of it.
“Why are you here, John?”
The older man smiled as gently as ever. Right now, it pissed him off. He was petty, so what?
“The kid said you were going to the cafeteria downstairs. I love their coffee, obviously, I came along!”
“They have great Arabic coffee." Yosef agreed.
“What? So it wasn't work bullshit, you were coming for coffee too!”
Yosef smiled pleased. “That's just a bonus.”
Suho gritted his teeth and ignored them all the way to the coffee shop.
The small coffee shop was as busy as a few days ago, which meant very few customers. It was better than nothing, he didn’t want the coffee shop to close due to the lack of people. The elderly couple recognised him immediately, and as soon as he entered, they began asking what had been of him.
“For a moment we thought you didn't get the job.” Said the elderly man.
“But look at you! You look like one of those fancy executives.” Said the elderly woman.
Suho made up an excuse, he told them he hadn't been called for the job offer until now and that he had been busy doing odd jobs to sustain himself. He didn't want to worry the elderly couple that helped him when he arrived. After all, he had been kidnapped near their store.
At least he didn't have to worry about his unsolicited company, Yosef and John had the decency to have their order on their own table. He suspected that Yosef lied about working ‘incognito’ during their lunch, but the guy was so nice and laid back that he wasn't sure.
He ordered his coffee and he also paid for everything he ate that first day in Magentano. Additionally, he ordered some sweets for Lloyd and Javier.
“If we sum everything, that would be 22.6 gold, am I right?”
The granny that had helped him so much laughed. “You even sound like a local. You will be fine living in Magentano young man.”
He wasn't sure where Lloyd got the money, but he had paid for every ‘worked hour’ done during the first month of his contract. But thanks to that Suho was able to pay his debt to the elderly couple like his parents taught him, through his own hard work. He joked some more with the couple, enjoying his time while chatting with them. He would definitely come here anytime he wanted coffee. He got his order and after some more chat with the elderly couple, it was time to say goodbye.
Suho tried to leave his companions behind, but Yosef noticed immediately, and he made his way back accompanied. Taking the elevator during a busy hour was something else without Lloyd, it was so crowded that Yosef stood between him and other people.
“Did you hear what happened in human resources yesterday?”
“Who hasn’t? Unbelievable, I don't understand what the big boss is thinking. We are the ones who have to put up with that drunkward.”
The elevator was full of people, all making small talk. It was so crowded that Suho couldn't pinpoint who exactly said that.
“They say human resources is telling everyone that he didn't do anything. Do you believe that?”
“Of course not! They must have been paid to say that. I would love to be able to solve my problems by throwing money at them.”
He felt someone grab his shoulder reassuringly, it was John. He smiled at him in what Suho assumed was meant to be comforting. It was not, but it didn't matter, he promised to behave. If he could at least identify who they were, then Suho could retaliate in non-physically violent ways.
They arrived at their floor, and Yosef cleared the exit for them. He tried unsuccessfully to identify the pair. Whatever, he would have to let it go-
Just as the elevator was closing John slammed his hand against the side of the door, forcing it open. It was the first time he saw the gentle and merry man make a serious expression.
“For the record, you idiots, not a single euro was spent in compensation for yesterday's incident. In fact, and if you bothered to actually inform yourselves instead of behaving like fucking teenagers, you would know to trust what Bob says. Very few people hate that kid more than him.”
“Who do you think you are to talk to us like that?”
Many people began complaining, but John simply laughed. He was back to the merry person Suho met yesterday.
“I’m the new head executive of accountability, and I’m also the person in charge of reassigning the budget of every department, no exceptions. Understood?" He didn’t wait for a reply.
“And I used to be that kid’s boss.” John let go of the elevator. “I had to put up with him. You lot shut your damned mouths.”
The elevator closed and John continued to walk back to the small office with his usual laid-back attitude.
“I like him.” Said Yosef.
Suho smiled. “Yeah, me too.”
Back in the small meeting room that was now their office, most of the security staff had left, while the rest had made themselves comfortable and chatted without a care.
“Hey, Brad, where are Wade and Lucy?”
John sat in front of Brad, who was showing Lloyd a video of people doing stupid stuff.
“They went ahead to continue working. You will have stuff to do by the time you go back.”
Brad laughed when some dude fell into an inflatable pool because a dog ran in between his legs. Lloyd looked at it confused.
“I don’t get why you find this so funny, this is sad. They are sober. What's their excuse for being fucking stupid? And it can't be accidental; they recorded the whole damn thing.”
Brad took his phone and continued to watch his video.
“It’s funny because it's stupid. Come on, are you saying that you have never done stupid shit? You were drunk like… half of the time!”
Lloyd rolled his eyes. “Obviously I did, but I don't record myself doing it.”
Suho decided to grab some forgotten fries from the table, and he sat beside Lloyd. “They want the fame of becoming viral.”
“Yeah, I guess I can get that. What’s that?”
Lloyd pointed at the paper bag with the desserts. He handed Lloyd the bag full of cookies and brownies.
“For you and Javier. It's from the coffee shop I told you about.”
Lloyd took a brownie and ate it in one go. Was their meal not enough?
“Dis if goof!”
Or maybe Lloyd just lacked all kinds of manners despite coming from a rich family. Not that it was a problem, it only showed how much of a dork he was. Lloyd put the bag down and sent something from his phone while he tried to chew the whole brownie.
John laughed and stood up just in time to stop Brad from recording Lloyd. He took his subordinate back with him before Brad could get his ass kicked by the group of bodyguards guarding Lloyd. People in this company were vicious, nothing good would come from a video like that. And, if the angry glares directed at Brad moments ago were any indication, the security team understood that too.
They waved the pair goodbye, and Lloyd offered the bag to the security team.
“Do you want? You can have mine. I don't like sweets that much.”
“Hey! I bought it with my hard-earned money! Don't give it away!”
Lloyd ruffled his hair, and the only reason he was saved from his fury was the group of bodyguards present in the room. He didn't want to try his chances by punching Lloyd right in front of the group.
“Thanks, but I really don't like sweets that much. I like spicy food, don't Koreans like spicy food too? I can show you a good Mexican restaurant.”
Suho decided that life was too short to remain pitiful about something so unimportant.
“This is why I like you. Please, I miss my spiciness so much. I don't care if it's not even Korean.”
The bodyguards laughed and politely declined Lloyd’s second offer. Lloyd looked at them while raising an eyebrow.
“Are you sure? Soon there will be nothing left.”
At that moment the door opened and Javier entered like a soldier ready for battle. At the sight of their boss the security team entered ‘work mode’ in an instant.
“Boss! What brings you here?”
Javier’s eyes narrowed, and you didn't need to be a genius to know most of them were in trouble.
“I should be asking that.”
In a matter of seconds only Elisa and Jin were left in the room. They stayed in silence, ashamed to have also been caught lazing around during their working hours. Suho needed to get going too. It was going to be boring to go alone, but he had to, at least for today. Despite Lloyd's reassuring words said early in the morning, he didn't want Lloyd to hear all the bullshit going around.
“My sweets.”
Javier walked beside Lloyd, he looked… eager? Lloyd handed him the bag while looking at his brother with his typical deadpan look.
“Here, thank Suho. He bought it for you. Now get out.”
Javier ignored the last part and smiled-! Holy shit, Javier was smiling at him!
“Thank you.”
Javier took a cookie, ate it, and went out with a big smile adoring his angelic features.
“Javier loves sweets, you can bribe him with them.”
Oh, that explains the smile.
“Do you think it will be enough to- Auch!”
Lloyd punched him on the shoulder.
“Don’t even start, you fucking workaholic.”
“Hey, it's for the debt! You wouldn't see me working half as hard if I didn't want to, or if it was something else.”
Lloyd’s deadpan expression got under his skin. People here never appreciated it when he was being nice. And as usual, Lloyd continued paying him no mind.
“Do you realise that you called yourself a workaholic either way? That only means you are willing to overwork yourself over this shit.”
Suho opened his mouth, he felt like he had the right words to retort at the tip of his tongue, but then he lost them. He put a hand under his chin instead and thought very hard… Maybe he had spent too many years in ‘survival mode’ back in Korea. He usually laughed it off, but Lloyd was right, he was repeating the same patterns in Magentano. He had many reasons to stay away from his past, yet here he was, recreating it in bad habits.
Oh damn, this was a wake-up call moment! Maybe he should think more deeply about his unhealthy habits. It's not like the problem of this mega conglomerate depended solely on him to be resolved, and maybe he needed to reflect more on why he was obsessed with the debt… he missed his parents too, he knew that was the reason. Actually, he was very lucky that the Fronteras took time to prevent him from obsessing over the debt and overworking himself. That's it! After the debt was settled, he was going to figure out a plan for an early retirement!
Lloyd caught his attention by punching him gently this time.
“Suho to earth! Hey! We have stuff to do, just leave the boring desk job to me. Now go to work, you need to make up for the lost time. Shu you fucking workaholic, shu.”
He frowned but stood up. He would meditate over his recent realisation later. “Don't ‘shu’ me, I’m not an animal. And before I forget.”
He opened and unlocked Lloyd's computer. They worked so closely together that they knew each other's pins by now. He quickly opened some documents.
“Read this if you get stuck with your work.”
Lloyd pushed him away with a poor display of mock anger, he was almost snorting.
“Yeah, I get it. Now shu, get out, shu.”
He took his things and sent one last stingy glare at Lloyd, and Lloyd stuck out his tongue at him.
Gosh, it was good to have his dorky friend back.