The shy streaks of starlight illuminate the dim office room, casting measly shadows upon the figures inside. The room is rather quiet, only the sound of soft breathing, keyboards typing and the dull ticking of the clock as it races past 11 o'clock is heard.

Jungkook presses enter on his keyboard and grins victoriously, feeling overjoyed after finally accomplishing the task. He's not going to lie, it was hard. He was racing against time and accuracy, two very difficult players, but in the end he managed to accomplish what Mr Kim set him. And it feels great. He feels like he's slowly proving himself worthy to the man. Jungkook stands up and then walks towards his boss who is furiously typing away on his laptop, his dark eyes boring into the screen like a maniac as he drills his focus onto the words he types.

"Mr Kim," Jungkook calls out while standing in front of his desk. The ravenette pauses his typing and looks up, his dark eyes now meeting Jungkook's and sending nervous chills down the boy's back. God, this man is so intimidating.

Jungkook slightly clears his throat to ensure that he doesn't stutter and then places the small stack of papers on the man's desk. "I've finished the task you assigned me, sir."

Taehyung looks up at him, eyes not shredding any emotions. Jungkook slightly gulps down the small lump in his throat and continues to speak. "There were 3025 surveys in total for the 50 products. I have put all the data into a spreadsheet and have taken away any outlier scores from the set. This is the page-long summary of the best products, which was the King's Smart Duplicate Watch and King Smart Car. I've sent a product description to Mrs Lisa Parker and Mr Clyde Witterman and they sent replies saying they would like to invest in the products."

Jungkook smiles a little, feeling proud of himself for accomplishing such a big task in such a small amount of time. He looks up at the older to see what he has to say but is taken aback by his reaction. Or should he say, the lack thereof.

The ravenette looks down at the stack of papers with a bored expression and then looks back at the brunette while adorning the same look. He then casually looks back at his computer screen and starts typing again, going on with his task as if Jungkook didn't just plop a week's worth of work in front of him.

"Mm, okay. You may go now. Remember, work starts at 6 in the morning. Make sure you are here on time."

Jungkook stands there, slightly shocked. He didn't quite expect the such a non-chalant reaction from him. Sure, he wasn't expecting a parade with elephants and band players celebrating the completion of this hard task but at least a nod of approval may have been nice.

But he knows he can't complain, this is his job. He is expected to do this and if he is to keep working here, he should expect more tasks like this without receiving any form of recognition. After all, he should be happy that he has this job in the first place.

As Jungkook continues to ponder, Taehyung looks back up at him with a raised brow, silently questioning him why he's still here. Jungkook startles away from his thoughts and hastily steps back, almost tripping over his shoes as he does so. "O-okay, sir. I'll get going. Thank you. H-have a nice night."

With that, the smaller spins around and trots off. Taehyung watches the boy's back as he hurriedly walks out of the office, noticing how his brunette locks bounce with every step that he takes. Jungkook slightly trips as he goes and stumbles closer to the door. He spins back around and gives his boss a sheepish smile, waves his hand a little in a final awkward attempt at good bye, apologises to the tiled floor and then finally takes his leave. Taehyung watches with a raised brow as the door finally closes shut and with that, he slowly averts his gaze to the stack of papers and picks it up. He flicks through them with a calculating gaze and then places it back down without a word.

He sits there for a few seconds in utter silence, letting his thoughts run mutedly, thinking back to the smaller boy and his awkward words and actions. He lets out a small breath before he leans back on his chair.

Taehyung doesn't want to admit it but he's impressed. Never in a million years did he think that that nervous jittery kid could accomplish a task like this in such little time. But here he is, stood corrected.

Taehyung looks back at the door and then lets a small smirk fall onto his lips.

Quite impressive, Bunny. But let's see if that determination of yours will last for this next task I have planned for you.

The man chuckles to himself before turning back to his computer. He lets the smirk rest on his lips as he stares at the hundreds of emails displayed on the electric device.

You think you can handle the business world?

Taehyung rolls his head to each side, cracking the strained joints of his neck before leaning over to pull open the small drawer attached to his desk. From it, he takes out that oh-so-familiar box of cigarettes and picks out one of the cancer-sticks. He slips it between his pink lips before lighting it up and taking a long drag out of it. The hazy smoke enters his system and instantly calms his mind as the blistering toxins ease out the knots of stress that tear apart his head.

The tendrils of smoke waft up into the air, filling the room with its bitter musk. Taehyung sits there in the newfound haze of the office room, a bitter frown settling on his lips.

Don't be a fool, Bunny. You should escape this cage before it's too late.

Taehyung exhales a heavy breath before going back to his work once again. He continues to work as the time flies by, as night turns to dawn and dark turns to light. When it's 4 am he finally decides to head home for a few hours of sleep. The mere stretch of time does little to rest the man's throbbing head and when he wakes up, his eyes are red from lethargy.

He stumbles towards the bathroom mirror and then inspects the sickening paper that lays as his complexity and the prominent bruises of sleepless nights under his eyes. He sighs before opening his tap and spraying icy droplets of water over his face. He shudders at the feeling and blinks repeatedly to ease out the strain against his tired eyes. He looks back into the mirror, watching the droplets slide down his face onto the marble countertop.

He chuckles at his reflection, a forced smile curving upon his lips, "Kim Taehyung, the man that you've become," he croaks while boring his eyes into himself. The smile that stretches his skin slowly crumbles away, eyes dimming as he drops his facade.

"Pathetic," he whispers.

He then straightens his body, the hint of vulnerability on his features dropping back into a lifeless expression before he walks off to put on his suit for the day. He stands in front of the body length mirror as he starts dressing himself.

The exterior that people display is a form of survival for humans. Like a chameleon changes its colour to blend in with the environment, humans change their appearance to conform to society. Hide one's true self to be one with the crowd. If you want to survive you musn't stand out, forget about individuality, forget about identity, put on a mask and hide your emotions, your feelings, your thoughts. Strip away your humanity and bear the scent of perfection. That's how you survive. By killing what's within and faking what you put out.

Kim Taehyung likes to think of it as camouflage. As he pulls on his sleek black suit, as he wraps his golden watch around his wrist, as he sprays on his ridiculously expensive cologne, he feels like he's camouflaging.

He's blending in with his surroundings, with the empire that is known as the world of business. He's hiding himself. He's never liked the smell of his cologne. It's smells overpoweringly masculine, an artificial remake of what power, wealth and status should smell like. It exudes too much luxury and its poisonously sweet smell makes him dizzy.

But what can he do? He's doing it to protect himself; To hide from the predators by dressing like one himself.

Because in a world full of lions, the rabbits must pretend to like meat to stay alive.

~

Jungkook steps into the office room just a minute before the clock strikes six. He attempted to shyly greet some other workers on the way here but they barely acknowledged his presence which made him blush furiously in embarrassment. He closes the door behind him and walks further into the office, noticing that the boss is already sitting at his desk, wearing a fresh new suit.

"Good morning, sir," Jungkook greets as he walks over to his desk. The man looks up and slightly nods in acknowledgement before looking back down at his work.

Damn, what is it with everyone being so cold in this company? Is that like the style? Is he also supposed to act like he has a golden stick up his ass?

Jungkook decides to shrug it off and sits down on his chair. He looks up at Mr Kim and slightly clears his throat. "U-Uh, sir? Do you have anything you want me to do today?"

At that, the man looks up at him with a hint of a smirk on his features. Jungkook feels a bit scared at this, wondering what other tasks his boss has planned for him. Mr Kim doesn't say a word and instead gets up from his chair before he walks towards a cabinet in the corner of the room. Jungkook watches as he rummages through it before he picks out a huge box. He carries it over towards Jungkook's desk and then drops the box on top of it. Dust particles fly off the cardboard and into Jungkook's face, causing the boy to move back while grimacing.

"What's this, sir?" He asks while scrunching his face at all the dust.

The man leans over, his dark eyes drilling into the boy as a cunning grin spreads across his face. "This is all the files of documents on the products that we have released in the past 2 years. I want you to sort through every single one and write a three-page analysis for each document, analysing the pros and cons of each product and their success rate. After that, I want you to call each client that is associated with the files, so that's around 1500 clients and ask if they can give personal feedback on the products and if they are interested in buying similar products. You are to email a document with the information given by the clients to the production team and get them to start making models for modified versions of the products. When you have done all that, I would like a full 7-page summary on all these products, explaining their benefits to the company and why we should invest in modifying them."

Jungkook stares up at the man with his doe eyes, blinking slowly as if he's trying to take in all the information.

"I'd like this done by tomorrow night. Got it?" Taehyung says as he quirks his eyebrows up at the boy.

Taehyung can't help but let a devious little smirk play on his lips. He knows that this task is impossible. Even the most experience workers would struggle with something like this so for a newbie like Jungkook, there is no hope. He is certain that the boy will not accept the task because it just couldn't be done. But to his utter surprise, the smaller meekly looks up at him and simply nods while saying,

"y-yes sir."

Taehyung's smirk slightly falters at the boy's response but he quickly puts it back on, huh, let's see how quickly you change your mind, bunny.

Jungkook watches the man as he walks back to his desk and then his eyes trail over to the large box. With hesitant hands, he slightly opens the box to looks at its contents.

Oh god.

He feels like he just opened Pandora's box.

He dumbly stares at the shit load of papers before heaving out a deep breath. I can do this. He thinks to himself. He has to do this, regardless of how impossible the task may seem. This is Jungkook's dream job, working under a huge company like King's Corp. This is what he's been working for all his life.

It would be silly if he lets a small obstacle trip him up.

Jungkook nods his head to himself and tightens his hands into determined fists.

He's got this.

A/N: Just a little more insight to the characters, especially Taehyung. Also, since some of you are struggling to switch from reading bottom Tae (in Homophobic high) to top Tae, here's a pic of Jungkook to prove that he is the babbiest baby.