Chapter Text
***2025, The Narubet and the Thamnithit Company***
Quite riled up, Saint stormed into Shin’s office, startling him.
“Piece of trash!” Saint yelled as he slumped down on the sofa, spreading out on it like he was at home and not at work. His head was throbbing like crazy, and he was so angry he was breathing like a mad dog. With a loud growl, he sat up and shot a dirty look at Shin who had yet to acknowledge him, let alone ask him why he was so angry. He found as always, Shin’s eyes on him, watching him, observing him with the ever-so-present half-smile. He was playing with a pen and Saint was getting even more pissed off than he already was. Shin hasn’t said anything, he just slowly raised his eyebrows, and Saint growled, he growled good and loud, hoping the idiot of his best friend would get the memo. “Well? Won’t you ask?” Shin even dared to snort at him as he ever so sluggishly mimicked him to go on using that damn pen he still has in his hand. Saint only growled again, grabbed a persimmon from the bowl on the coffee table, and threw it at Shin, who dodged it, the smirk never leaving his stupid and at the moment very punchable face. The persimmon crashed into the window behind Shin’s desk, leaving a nice juicy stain on its surface and hitting the floor soon after the collision. Ever so casually like an asshole he was, Shin turned around in his chair, hummed and turned back around to keep giving the half-smirked look to very pissed off Saint. “We’ve got Trojan.”
“Condoms? Huh?” Shin asked in confusion, purposely riling up his best friend even more. Saint grabbed another persimmon and swung his hand backwards, ready to throw this one as well. “Stop wasting food.”
“Then stop annoying me. You know damn well what I’m referring to. You’ve got the report. I know you did since I was the one who wrote it.” Shin raised his hands up in the air in surrender with the ever-so-fake innocence painted on his face.
“I assume you’ve stopped it before it got too problematic?” Saint lowered his hand down, looked at the fruit in his hand, and gave it a big, angry bite. He made a face the moment the nasty taste of half-ripe persimmon hit his senses.
“Fuck, this tastes like shit.” Shin only watched him in amusement. Saint casually stood up, walked to Shin’s desk took his ‘Worlds biggest dick award’ mug he got him years ago for some occasion neither remember, and spat the nasty fruit in his half-drank coffee without ever breaking the eye contact.
“You hate persimmon as it is.”
“I thought maybe my taste has changed.” Shin snorted at that. “What?”
“Your taste has been worryingly unchanged for the past 10 or so years, Saint,” Shin said matter-of-factly.
Saint in respond to that sat on the table to Shin’s right with half of his ass on Shin’s paperwork just like he planned to do just to annoy him. He grabbed the mug with persimmon and coffee in it and started swinging his legs back and forth while slowly shaking the mug and observing the way the fruit was shuffling around the mug.
“This looks like someone took a dump in your mug.” Suddenly, Shin’s hand was on his left thigh, causing Saint to look away from the mug to stare him down.
“Your tantrum was not about the Trojan attack, and we both know it.” Saint shook his head and looked away from Shin’s piercing gaze. “Give me the mug.” Saint shook his head and tightened his grip around it. “I don’t want you spilling this all over these papers, so give me the mug.”
“Give me the money for better cybersecurity.”
“No.” He didn’t have to look at the bustard to know Shin has a provoking smile on his face. “Saint. The mug.”
“Shin. The money.” Saint mimicked the same tone Shin used on him and then diverted his eyes away from the mug, but remembered to keep the strong grip around it. His eyes fell on the persimmon stain on the window.
“You want 100 million baht for cybersecurity in a company that makes healthy food and drinks. Your logic is beyond reason.” Saint turned back to look at him, only to show his tongue at him before he went back to staring at the persimmon stain on the window. “Give me the mug, Saint.” With an eye roll, Saint placed the mug on the desk as far away from himself as possible, just to be sure not to spill the liquid all over Shin's paperwork. “That works too. Will you tell me now why you are acting up?” Saint jumped off the table, grabbed Shin’s chair, spun him around, making them fully face each other, and bent down to get to Shin’s eye level.
“We’ve been summoned to the Narubet-Thamnithit family dinner. Haven’t you got the messages or the calls or an owl or something?” Shin gave him a confused look. Without a single care in the world, Saint let go of the chair and shoved his right hand inside Shin’s suit jacket, where he knew he kept his personal phone.
He took the phone out and tapped the screen, but the damn thing showed no sign of life. “Why do you even have this phone when you actively forget to charge it?” Saint watched as Shin’s mouth curled into a very playful smirk, which meant only one thing, his best friend had scored the previous night, “You slick ass. You scored last night and didn’t tell me about it? I’m your best friend, and you didn’t tell me!? Who is he? Do I know him? Is he hot? Was it a one-night thing? Do you plan to see...”
“Breath, Saint. Breath. And if you don’t mind, one question at a time.” Saint grabbed a phone charger from inside his jeans pocket (a habit he’s grown thanks to Mister Narubet over here, who doesn’t care about charging his private phone as opposed to his business phone that never gets shut off). He walked to the sofa where a power socket was, plugged the charger in, and gave life to Shin’s poor phone.
“What’s with the sudden family dinner?” Saint placed the phone on the sofa before he turned around to give Shin his best ‘you’re not getting out of this conversation’ look.
“Nah, nah, nah, mister playboy, tell me about your last night's activity first. Family matters can wait.” Shin’s face remained as playful as before.
“It was nothing special. We met at the bar, he let me buy him a drink, and then we ended up in his hotel room. He’s a model or something. I don’t know. It was a one-night thing, so I didn’t bother with informing you.” Saint gave him a very angry look. “Now what?”
“I might start throwing those shits back at you.”
“Saint, honestly, it was nothing special.” Saint flipped him off and sat on the sofa. He grabbed Shin’s phone, unlocked it, and went through his notifications. Something they both did with each other's phone, because, as rules would have it, there are no secrets between two best friends.
“Your mom called you 10 times. Mine called you... 23 times? Talking about having a favorite son...” Saint mumbled the last bit, earning a chuckle from Shin. He looked up and found him standing not at an arm’s length away from where he was sitting. “What? Are you worried I’ll find your nudes again?” Shin didn’t say anything, he just sat on the sofa so close to Saint that he nearly ended up sitting in his lap. “Why don’t you sit on my lap while you’re at it?” Shin didn’t say anything again; he just purposely scooted even closer to Saint. “Dick.” Shin hummed as he rested his head on Saint’s shoulder. “Okay? I guess your nothing special night was a bit more special than you’re presenting it.” Shin huhhed at that. “You’re clearly exhausted, which indicates to me that you, Mr. Narubet, haven’t gotten enough sleep last night.” Shin hummed. “So it was special?”
“No, the damn hotel was about 4 hour drive away from the company.” Saint wasn’t sure if he should mock him or pity him.
“You’re pathetic.”
“He was really hot and I was extremely horny.” Saint shook his head at that. He knew already that there’s no cure for Shin’s stupidity, but driving for 4 hours just to get laid is more than just your casual stupidity. It's the dumbest and stupidest thing in the world.
“You have issues.”
“Like knows like.” As someone who doesn’t engage in casual sex, Saint was bothered with the implication, but as Shin’s best friend, Saint knew he just said that to piss him off even more than he already was. As a response to the provocation, Saint jerked upwards on purpose to get Shin’s head off him. “That was mean.”
“You are mean, Shin.”
“Dinner. What’s it about?” Saint gave him a look full of worry and anger. The dinner itself wasn’t that big of a problem. Nine out of ten times, their families are nice, and Saint enjoys spending time with the majority of them. But it’s that one out of ten times that, at the moment, worries him more than anything. Especially seeing how persistent their families had been about the two of them needing to attend the dinner.
“You have to be there. Both of you. And tell that son of mine to charge his phone.” Mr. Narubet has said in a strict but at the same time friendly manner when he called Saint about 3 hours ago.
“Honey, the dinner. You and Shin cannot under any circumstances miss it.” His mother had said when she called him about 10 minutes after Shin's dad had.
“If you don’t show up to the dinner, Shin’s getting kicked off his position, and you will be pushed into Sales without any access to the internet or any machines.” His father has ever so nicely told him after he interrupted the phone call between him and his mom.
“Saint, you need to inform Shin about the dinner. You should clear up your schedule so as not to miss it.” Shin’s mom spoke in a small and carrying voice as usual when she called about an hour ago.
“I have no idea what the two of you have done, but everyone is demanding your presence. All I know is that everyone is acting very weird about this dinner.” Shin’s younger sister, who lives at Narubet residence with her son and husband, had told him in a very concerned voice when Saint called her in hopes of getting some better information about the dinner.
“Saint?” Saint shook his head, in an attempt to shoo away those stupid conversations he’s had with multiple family members of both the Narubet clan and the Thamnithit clan in the past 3 or so hours.
“There will be some big ass announcement and we are forbidden from not attending. According to my dear father, if we don’t show up, you will be discharged from your position, and I will be pushed down to Sales. And skies above know all about the great 2023 sales fiasco.”
“Yeah. It was an outstanding, proper lunatic performance. You deserve an award for it.” They both started laughing at the memory of Saint going completely unnecessarily childish and borderline psychotic.
***2023, The Narubet and the Thamnithit Company, Sales Department***
It was his first day of the so-called internship in the Satan’s Department (a thing he will be calling the Sales Department from now on). Not only was he fuming over the fact that HE HAD TO BE HERE, on top of that, the Satan’s Department Leader Mister Dickhead (Saint will be calling Mister Jeng that from now on), gave him the ever-so-exciting job of putting numbers into an Excel sheet.
Saint was fuming to the point he was sure he would spontaneously combust, but knowing his luck, he would still be forced to put in those stupid numbers. He was in his last year of getting his master's degree in Cyber Security, and his Father had deemed it logical to put him in Sales for his over-the-summer internship.
According to that man’s logic, despite the fact that Shin will be the one leading the company, Saint has to go through same crap he does, just because his last name happens to be in the company’s name. He just HAD TO, even though he plans to take over the IT department once he gets his degree and never, ever go anywhere near the Satan's or any other departments.
In reality, leading the IT department in the company that makes healthy food and drinks is a waste of his talent, Saint is very much aware of that, but… in complete honesty, he isn't too keen on his studies, the only reason why he picked a major in IT is to avoid being pressured into competing against Shin in who would lead the company.
Saint was never interested in that aspect, nor will he ever be. He’d rather waste his time on trying to reason with a machine than trying to reason with people, he found the later almost impossible.
Saint let out a very inhuman growl as he slammed his hands over his desk, not caring even the slightest that he was disrupting other people's jobs. It was stupid and childish of him to act that way, Saint knew that, but he had to make a point until someone would have mercy on him and get him out of the department.
“Look on the bright side of things, your desk is right next to mine.” Shin, who was enjoying his internship, said in a cheerful voice, and Saint honestly tried to strangle him with the willpower of his mind. “Oh, come on, Mister Sulkypants. If you give it a go, it could be fun.”
“Oh, yes, there’s nothing more exciting than putting fucking numbers in Excel sheet for 8-hours per day. Oh, the excitement! I need to be careful not to get too excited and die from a heart attack or some shit.” Shin cheerfully laughed, clearly entertained by his rambling.
Shin continued to do his work for some time when he noticed that Saint went unusually silent. He quickly glanced at him and saw him staring deeply at his screen. With a cocked eyebrow, knowing he was up to no good, Shin rolled over to Saint’s desk and found him staring at something that did not look like Excel sheet.
“The fuck are you doing?”
“Having fun. The printer in my father’s office is at the moment spitting out papers with ‘GET ME OUT OF THE SATAN'S DEPARTMENT’ written on them while his computer just happened to disconnect from the internet.”
“You hacked your father?”
“No, darling…” Saint was way too playful and happy about his mischief so he continued his playfulness with Shin as well. He dramatically turned around and looked deep into his best friend’s eyes, “I cracked into the company server.”
“Huh?”
“Right…” Saint sighed, but he was more than happy to give him a lecture on the difference between a hacker and a cracker. He turned his chair around, pushed Shin’s chair a bit further away and rolled his own a tad bit closer to him. He clasped Shin’s shoulders and with the biggest of the smiles, he started his lecture, “Hackers do legal cyber break-ins, they are in a nut shell hired by companies to check their cybersecurity and their job is to find the faults and help the company upgrade their security… what I did was not that… therefor I didn’t hack… And then we have the crackers... You see, your usual cracker breaks into the systems in order to steal, delete or damage the data… Of course, I didn’t do any of that, but my breaking into our server was of a mischievous nature rather than an ethical one… Therefore I didn't hack, I cracked into the server to mess with the guy who made me do my summer internship in the department that has nothing to do with my range of knowledge.”
“You…”
“Yeah, give me a computer and if I’m angry at you, you will go through all sorts of shit.”
“You will be in big trouble.”
“Maybe then… next time he will think twice before making me intern in any other department than IT.”
As on a cue, not long after, his Father teleported himself in front of him.
“You little rascal! I want to see you in my office, now!”
“But, Father… what about numbers and Excel sheets? The company might catch on fire if I don’t put those numbers in! Think of the children, Father!” Saint acted a mocking type of innocence, adding just enough theatrical aspects to get that extra kick out of this whole thing. The whole performance went just okay. It earned him a very angry growl from his father and a choked-up chuckle from Shin. He hoped for a bit more dramatic reactions on their part, but it was okay. He will live. “OH THE POOR CHILDREN, FATHER! THE CHILDREN!” This dramatic yelling went a bit better than the first attempt. Shin started coughing like he had a hairball stuck in his throat to mimic his laughter, and his father’s face turned redder than a ripe tomato. He also noticed several people who worked at this wretched department were cackling and whatnot. “What if little Fah ends up on the streets because I didn’t manage to put enough numbers in my Excel sheet? Oh,Fah! P’Saint is sorry!” He spewed out the first name he could think and even dropped down to his knees and started whaling like a madman he was. "Think of poor little Fah who will have to grow up homeless."
“THAT’S ENOUGH! HOW OLD ARE YOU!?”
“Then get me out of this department before I do more than I’ve already done.” With a scoff and a very thretening look his father left the Satan's departement.
"Who the fuck is Fah?"
"I have no idea. It was the first name, I could think of." Shin rolled his eyes but chuckled in the end. "You think this little show meant something to him?"
"Of course not. This was just... an appetizer if you will."
Despite his best and most mischievous attempts, Saint was still forced to spend his summer putting numbers into the damn Excel sheets. The only good thing about that hellish summer was the fact that his desk remained next to Shin’s.
***2025, The Narubet and the Thamnithit Company, Shin's office***
“The dinner. Let’s go back to talking about dinner.”
“Right. The circus that we must attend if we don’t want to be severely punished.”
“Is someone dying?” Saint shrugged his shoulders. “Are we getting a new family member?”
“Your sister gave birth like 4 months ago. So, no?” Saint was suddenly pulled backwards onto the sofa by Shin. Once again, there was Shin’s head on his shoulder.
“Maybe someone is getting a divorce?” Saint smacked him across the chest. “A marriage?”
“Who would be getting married? Huh? Everyone is married or underage except for the two of us. And neither of us is in a relationship. Or maybe last night was...” This time it was Shin who smacked Saint across the chest.
“I guess we will find out. When’s the dinner?”
“Friday 8pm at your brother-in-law’s restaurant.” Saint could feel Shin had tensed up, which confused him. Last he checked, Shin didn’t dislike his brother-in-law, “What?”
“I have a meeting on Saturday at 3 am with the Americans?”
“Erm... Right... that...”
“Yeah, are you sure you've got the right time and date? It's a very important meeting for the whole company.” Saint only gave Shin a very angry 'yes' look. He had been told the time and the date by 5 different people, at least 20 times in the past 3 hours. "What the fuck is so important that they insist I attend it when they know about the meeting with the Americans?" Saint shrugged his shoulders since he to wanted to know the answer to that question.“You’ll drive us there, right?”
“I was thinking about taking an Uber or something.” Shin was giving him looks. “That way I can get easily shitfaced?”
“Your brain starts working whenever some kind of a shit is involved, and yet other times you are a complete idiot.”
“It’s all part of my charm, honey.” Saint even went as far as winking at Shin. With a light chuckle and an eye roll, Shin went back to his desk.
"I really want you to drive us, that way we can flee whenever we want without needing to depend on anyone."
"But... alcohol, Shin..."
"Meeting with the Americans, Saint."
"Fine. But... we're taking the bike."
Shin raised his hands in surrender and went back to his work, expecting Saint to do the same. Once he noticed Saint is still sprawled out on the sofa he cleared his throat and gave him a cocked eyebrow look, “Don’t you have work to do?”
“If I go back outside, I might actually assault someone, and I will be forced to have yet another meeting with HR. And we really don’t want any of that, do we now?” He’s been forced into HR meetings on countless occasions while his father pushed him to work in as many idiotic departments as possible. Ever since he's been apointed as the head of the IT department he only had to attend the HR meeting on two occasion, one was the usual HR meeting all the brand new heads of departments need to do and one was for calling one of the Project Manager's 'a brainless twat'. The guy managed to catch a virus that nearly fucked over the entire company after opening the link for an anti-hair loss cream in an e-mail that was in fact in his spam.
“What the hell?”
“There was a Trojan attack because one of your exceptionally idiotic employees have turned off the firewall on their computer and went on some sketchy porn website.”
“Who was it?”
“Nope.”
“Who’s Nop?”
“Nope, as in no, I’m not telling you.”
“SAINT! I’m the boss!”
“Shin, give me money for cybersecurity, and we won’t have to have these types of conversations at least once a month.”
“Saint, the name.” Shin once again tried to use his demanding tone on him as if he didn't know Saint and didn't know this kind of attitude more often than not doesn't work on him.
“Shin, the money.”
Shin growled, flipped him off, and then, through gritted teeth, knowing he lost this battle, he stated, “At least tell me someone has dealt with the employee?”
“The employee is being lectured by one of my guys as we speak.”
“Right, better someone else from the IT department than you.” Saint only hummed to that. “You really don’t plan to leave?”
“Why? Are you planning to do something bad?” Saint teased, which earned him a frustrated sigh from Shin.
“You can stay here, but don’t disturb me.”
Mockingly, Saint pulled his best innocent face before he grabbed Shin’s phone, which was still charging, and went to play on it.