I.

Wendy took out her pocket-sized thermometer from its rectangular plastic case and placed it on the latte in front of her. Ms. Bae’s latte. The de-caff, no foam, non-fat caramel brulée latte served exactly at 75° C.

She looked at her watch. Five minutes before the arrival of the meticulous, surreptitiously sinister, cold-hearted tyrant of the multibillionaire fashion company, Aeris.

Wendy needed everything to be perfect as demanded by her boss. She took out her checklist and went through it one by one.

Documents… sorted by date…

Meetings…organised with twenty minute intervals…

Dry cleaning…already picked up…

Latte…incubating.

Everything was done.

She took off the thermometer once it hit 75° C and grabbed the latte before standing 1 cm from the elevator doors. The red digital numbers on the elevator panel were increasing then stopped at 26. The doors opened and there was the tyrant, posture screaming billionaire, defiant and proud.

Ms. Bae got out of the elevator, taking a step then held out her pristine, milky white hands, asking—demanding—for her coffee. She was wearing that exclusive coat Christopher Bailey, the founder and creator of Burberry, had personally given her, over what was probably a midi dress that costed Wendy’s pay check for the year. She had black Valentino heels on and her brown tortoise shell Trinity de Cartier sunglasses reflected the soft glow of the butterfly pendant lights which illuminated the place.

Wendy gulped and handed the coffee over. The tyrant didn’t take a sip until she reached her main office with the crystal glass walls, baby pink carpeting, and the gleaming, almost crescent-shaped desk with a white metallic finish.

No.

The wicked tyrant didn’t even dare sip because she knew beforehand, through holding the cup that her coffee wasn’t made right.

“This is not what I asked for,” she said. Her voice was quiet yet the tone was vicious, each syllable bitter and hostile.

Wendy bowed her head. “I-I’m sorry. B-but I made sure that the coffee was exactly right. I even—”

Her boss held out her hand and Wendy straightened up like a soldier being told by his commanding officer to stand with their full attention.

Ms. Bae didn’t even look at Wendy when she said, “I didn’t hire you to argue back. This coffee is not at its right temperature and I clearly told you that it must be or else the coffee will taste too bitter.”

There was no rise in tone when she spoke but her words felt heavy and Wendy found it hard to swallow nor look up. It was strangling, as if the gravity was too strong, that Wendy wanted to kneel on the floor for support. But she couldn’t. Ms. Bae’s authority spilled out and there was no wonder why she was this rich and the CEO of a leading conglomerate.

“Why did I even hire you? You can’t even do a simple thing such as make coffee.”

Wendy wanted to cry and scream and pull Ms. Bae’s hair out and she would’ve if Ms. Kang hadn’t entered the office with that bright smile of hers that just makes Wendy feel all fuzzy inside and forget about her worries.

“Because she does all your schedules, picks up your laundry and deals with all of your crap without filing for worker abuse,” Ms. Kang said, punctuating it with a smile. Ms. Kang was funny. She turned to Wendy and then went on, “Wendy you can leave.”

Wendy did what she was told, glad to be out of the metaphorical chokehold Ms. Bae had on her and headed to her seat. She slumped her head on her desk then started banging it lightly on the surface, wondering the same thing Ms. Bae had asked her. Why was she here? How did she even get accepted? She grunted in frustration. Wendy hated her job.

* * *

“You shouldn’t have dismissed her. I had a lot more things I wanted to say. She’s my employee. My personal assistant,” Irene said. Her tone was not as cold as earlier.

Seulgi crossed her arms. “Our employee. It’s my company too. You’re being too harsh on Wendy.”

“I hired her. MY employee. And I wasn’t harsh. I was reprimanding her so she wouldn’t do the same thing again.”

“For coffee you don’t even like drinking? That was a bit too much.”

“I like drinking coffee if it’s at the right temperature, thank you very much. And why are you here? I thought you are going to Korea for a meeting.”

“They moved it to next week which because I already booked the ticket. Want to go to Korea with me for a holiday?”

“I’m too busy.”

“Yeah. Yeah. I k