PHILOPHOBIA || lgbtq+ / manxman ✔️

one.

*Picture of Mark Lee*

"What a view. Wow!"

Impressed was an understatement for how Noah felt about the building Mark had chosen as the new location for Lee Enterprises in Beijing.

As the Chief Financial Officer of Lee Enterprises, and the head of the China branch of his father's company, Mark Lee was beyond picky when contemplating the location. He kept going back and forth between Beijing and Shanghai. After talks with his brother, Caiden, who happened to spend his first year out of college traveling with his then boyfriend, now husband, the two settled on Beijing.

Mark chose this exact location for one specific reason. He savored the moments he was in the sky, and working in this skyscraper was as close as he would get. He had always been one to enjoy every moment in a helicopter, or a plane, or just jumping out of one.

Noah had started Lee Enterprises a couple of years after his sons had been born with the help of a few friends, and as it continued expanding internationally, he wanted his sons to both direct a branch.

Caiden, not on the best terms with his dad, originally denied the idea, but after some talk with both Mark and Jake, his husband, he agreed and within the past year had Lee Enterprises up and running in Dublin, Ireland.

Mark, on the other hand, accepted the role almost instantly, as he had been training under his dad in Korea for the past two years.

As the head of both the security and IT departments in Korea, Mark was able to learn a lot more than he expected and even gained a friend.

"It better be; I had to fight the damn owner of this office for it," Haru rolled her eyes, handing them each a cup of coffee, as it was nine in the morning.

"I told you I could have done it," Mark took a sip of the hot beverage, his eyes glued to the glass windows, darting up at the sky.

Haru was the friend who didn't hold anything back and told it like it was. She was beautiful and smart and was absolutely in love with her self confidence. As someone who has been with him every day since he began his work at LE Korea, she has learned to read even the smallest of emotional changes that Mark didn't even know he had.

Though Mark truly appreciated her friendship, he wasn't one who liked being read. He was a mysterious person with the darkest of pasts, but she accepted him wholeheartedly.

It's not like he had told her about being stabbed by his ex's cousin, or that he was practically starved to death as a child. He hadn't told her that his dad showed up twenty years too late, either, only to not tell Caiden that Mark was actually alive, and hadn't died from the stabbing.

But she knew through the look in his eyes that there were certain things which gave him post traumatic stress disorder and never spoke about them.

"How long are you staying?" Mark asked his dad, as the clouds began to darken.

"I'm here for the next week or so, to help with whatever is needed; Eli and Mike are taking care of IT and Taylor and Ava took over my office. Apparently, it needs a spruce," Noah responded, earning a giggle from Haru.

"I told you not to let them near the office while they're in town, Noah," Mark shook his head, taking a seat on an empty chair; his office was still covered in boxes, and he was in need of some help.

"Speaking of which, I need to go out; I need paint. I'm not allowing neither you, nor myself, to look at these drab white walls while we're here. I'm thinking cream, or, eggshell, and an accent wall of violet," Haru spoke, knowing her friend won't deny it, as she had done the same when she was promoted to executive assistant in Korea.