Chapter Text
Thankfully, Shen Jiu left earlier for work than Shen Yuan did for school. He had quickly made himself and his younger brother lunch. Shen Jiu even bothered to make a sweet cream sandwich for Shen Yuan as his own version of an apology. While Shen Jiu didn't feel the least bit guilty about his treatment of Luo Binghe, he hated when his younger brother would pout in his room all night.
Even more thankfully, Shen Jiu had managed to find his old pair of glasses at the back of his bedside drawer. They were a little blurry, but if he were lucky he would be able to budget for a new pair in the coming weeks. Most of the saved up spare cash he had was meant for Shen Yuan's upcoming birthday party and he'd be damned before he dipped into that fund.
With his morning duty done, Shen Jiu finished hustling off to work.
Shen Jiu worked as what was basically a glorified intern at a local newspaper. His main duty was to help format all the daily articles into online web pages, ensuring that everything was credited correctly as well as tagged properly for the internal archive. It wasn't hard work, but it was thankless and didn't pay very much. Most of the time Shen Jiu glared at the shoddy writing and knew he could do better, which just served to infuriate him. But, well, it kept a roof over his head and food in his brother's stomach, which was all he could ask for at the end of the day.
As soon as Shen Jiu walked into the door and sat at his cubicle he knew it would be a bad day. Ning Yingying, one of the actual interns, had come over to chat with him. She was a sweet girl, Shen Jiu would even say he liked her, but she had no sense and was easily pumped for information by the office's biggest gossip: Qi Qingqi. As soon as Ning Yingying had finished chatting with him, he watched as Qi Qingqi honed in on her like a hawk. The glances she would send him afterward were not so subtle.
Already a headache was forming.
As Shen Jiu expected, soon enough the whole office was whispering about his mysterious black eye. And not too long after that was exactly who Shen Jiu did not want to see: Yue Qingyuan.
Shen Jiu and Yue Qingyuan had a messy history together. They'd both known each other as kids and had been quite close. Shen Jiu had even had some childish aspirations to maybe marry him someday, which Yue Qingyuan- or Yue Qi he'd known him- clearly hadn't shared. He'd abandoned Shen Jiu to the dogs the first chance he got, only to show up last year as one of the new managers. His guilt ridden expressions served to piss Shen Jiu off on the daily.
Yue Qingyuan would show up at Shen Jiu's desk at even the smallest excuse. Today was no different, as it seemed that the man had managed to weave some false concern into his huge-ass eyebrows when he approached. Shen Jiu only gave him a sharp look and went back to working on formatting an article.
"Shen Jiu...." The man started, which had Shen Jiu sigh and turn towards him. He drummed his fingers on the desk to show Yue Qingyuan he did not have time for this, which had the man wince slightly before he continued. "I've heard concerning rumors around the office. Are you alright?"
Yue Qingyuan made a half aborted motion towards Shen Jiu's black eye.
"I'm fine." Shen Jiu replied, flat, and turned back to his work. Yue Qingyuan lingered there for a few moments, obviously wanting to say more, but he just gave a tight sigh and turned to head back to his office. Shen Jiu felt his shoulders relax when he was gone.
Of course, that would not the end of Shen Jiu's troubles. He had gotten off too easy with Yue Qingyuan; usually the man was much more persistent. Around noon, the man showed up again. Only this time, he was standing in the middle of the whole office and calling for attention.
"Everyone! Thank you for your time. I wanted to introduce the new junior sports columnist to everyone." Yue Qingyuan said, his polite smile in place. When Shen Jiu saw who was standing before of him, he very valiantly resisted pulling his own hair out. "This is Liu Qingge. We should all come together as a team to make him feel welcome."
Liu-fucking-Qingge was standing there, dressed like a gym rat of all things, shuffling his feet at the attention he was now being given. Shen Jiu mentally started to beat himself. Of course this would happen! He hadn't gotten the stupid flag off his own back! Liu Qingge would just keep showing up wherever Shen Jiu was to further whatever stupid romance this world wanted him to have.
Shen Jiu wondered if he could get away with hiding. The sports division wasn't that close to the place that Shen Jiu worked, so maybe if Liu Qingge didn't see him he could stall until he figured out what to do-
"Oh wow, Shen Jiu!" Ning Yingying's voice echoed from beside him, much too loud for the crowded and quiet office. Liu Qingge's head snapped in their direction, which made Shen Jiu want to melt into his seat. "That's the Liu Qingge! I heard he was on the Olympic martial arts team!"
Yes, yes, of course Liu Qingge was part of the Olympic martial arts team. If you were a main character you couldn't be just a regular guy! That was only for het harem ikesai shit!
As soon as Liu Qingge was released from Yue Qingyuan's clutches he beelined it towards Shen Jiu. It was absolutely not conspicuous at all, drawing a lot of confusion and staring from those around them. Shen Jiu will admit he didn't help by instantly jumping up to try and flee. Avoiding this was about the only out that he had right now! Liu Qingge couldn't bury the flag deeper if he couldn't speak to him!
Shen Jiu made it to one of the back hallways when a firm hand grasped his wrist. He almost tripped, landing hard against a wall, and found himself corned in a dark and private (kinda) space. Mentally he started cursing every god and demon he could think of for this rotten luck! Liu Qingge was looming over him, looking awkward and angry- or maybe like he was trying to hold back a fart.
"I didn't know you worked here." Liu Qingge started out, his deep voice rumbling between them. He opened his mouth to say more but Shen Jiu cut him off.
"You know now. Do you mind? I have places to be." Shen Jiu unsuccessfully tried to find a way to squirm around the other man and get free, only it seemed that Liu Qingge's stupidly thick chest and arms were taking up all the fucking space! Ridiculous!
"I just-" Liu Qingge paused when Shen Jiu glared up at him, his scowl deepening. His deep, dark eyes were soundly scanning Shen Jiu's face, catching on the bruising in particular. "Is that what I did to you?"
It was said with a healthy dose of disgust. But-
"You were the one to hurt Xiao Jiu?" Yue Qingyuan spoke from behind Liu Qingge, making Shen Jiu curse for real under his breath. The hand that was still gripping Shen Jiu's wrist was soundly ripped off, Yue Qingyuan using his small height advantage to glower down at Liu Qingge.
The two men postured, nearly chest to chest, with Yue Qingyuan still squeezing Liu Qingge's wrist. No doubt it would make a really cool full panel spread but all it did was fill Shen Jiu with dread. Hadn't he explicitly wanted to avoid this scenario?! Now Yue Qingyuan was the fucking Second Male Lead! Like hell was he letting this happen!
Instead of standing there like a dewy eyed waif or trying to break them up, which was what was expected of him, Shen Jiu pressed himself back further against the wall so he could slide out of their view. One of the conference room doors was open, so he slid inside as quietly as possible. Thankfully if was empty. As soon as he was inside, Shen Jiu dropped down and crawled on his hands and knees underneath the big table, careful to scoot the chairs back in place. It wasn't perfect, but it would do for now!
"Shen Jiu!" Liu Qingge called, the door opening. Shen Jiu tensed and held his breath in his hiding spot. There was a long pause, then a muttered "fuck". The door closed behind him.
Shen Jiu peered out to make sure that Liu Qingge wasn't inside the room before he made his escape. He felt like he was on some video game stealth mission as he went the back way towards the main floor- and his desk. Shen Jiu felt something like relief to see no one camping it, but sadly he knew that he couldn't be here anymore today. Shen Jiu started to haphazardly scoop all his things into his spare bag.
"Shen Jiu!" Ning Yingying's voice rang out, loud and shrill, from behind him. Shen Jiu yelped and flinched, which made the girl's smile melt as she squinted at him. "Are you alright?"
"Uh-" Oh, shit, Ning Yingying had basically been a landmine he'd just stepped on. No doubt that Liu Qingge and Yue Qingyuan were already zeroing in on his location. "No! Tell Yue Qingyuan I'm sick and went home early. Bye!"
Yanking his charger out of the wall by the cord, Shen Jiu stuffed it into his pocket as he made his way to the door. He ended up speeding past Yue Qingyuan, who called out a pathetic "Shen Jiu!", but it was too late to catch him.
Much like the night before, Shen Jiu didn't stop looking over his shoulder until the safety of public transport had him in its steely grasp.