"Besides the director and the secretaries, by any chance, do you know who else have access to the middle lift?"

Sunny strained her ears as she tried to eavesdrop into the ongoing conversation while she stayed inside one of the cubicles in the Ladies.

"The middle lift? You mean the private lift? Higher management staffs usually have their meetings on the 18th floor so I think they have acess to the lift. But whether they can go to the floors above, I'm not that sure. Wae?"

"I saw someone unfamiliar just now, inside the private lift. She doesn't look like she works here since she's not wearing the staff pass."

"If she's not wearing a staff pass, that means she's not one of the Director's friends who are working here. It could be the Director's girlfriend then."

"The director already has a girlfriend? I thought she's single?"

"Yah, Kim Hyuna. Even if she's single, I don't think you stand a chance anyway."

Sounds of laughter were heard as a frown appeared on Sunny's expression. She continued listening as the girl who was called Hyuna, started telling her friend about what happened during her presentation this morning and the incident where she had managed to hold on to the Director's waist.

"She smells so good and looking at her at such a close proximity, I realised that she's really good-looking for a girl. Technically, since she's not married, that means she's still available, right?"

Another round of laughter was heard as Hyuna's friend chided her for being cheeky. A minute later, silence filled the Ladies as Sunny finally came out from her hiding place.

"If Krystal hears about this, Eunjin is going to get it from her." Sunny shook her head as she washed her hands and looked at the mirror. "But you can't blame Eunjin too. It's not her fault that she's got good genes in her."

Sunny was about to walk out from the Ladies when she remembered that Hyuna mentioned about a girl going up to the Director's office. She was wondering who that girl was and since lunch time was over, Sunny decided to pay Eunjin a visit at her office.

At the moment, the only other personnels that had access to Eunjin's office was herself, Taeyeon and Yuri. Of course, Krystal had that access too, along with Eunjin's grandparents and Uncle Park. Besides them, whoever wished to see Eunjin, would need to get her approval vide the head secretary who would then informed the front desk personnels about it. The head secretary herself would then the person to Eunjin's office.

When Sunny stepped out of the lift, she had anticipated to see Eunjin seated at her desk and being engrossed in her paperworks. Never would she had expected to see her boss lying on the couch with her head on Krystal's lap as she noticed that Krystal was covering Eunjin's ears with her hands. Both of them smiled at each other before Sunny walked up quietly towards the couple.

"Why is she sleeping here?" Sunny whispered as Krystal explained about Eunjin's lack of sleep last night. "Did the both of you had lunch already? Need me to get some food for the both of you?"

"It's okay, Sunny-unnie. I actually cooked some food for Eunjin. But I think I might need to heat them up first before serving it to her."

A smirk appeared on Sunny's face as she teased Krystal about getting herself ready to be a wifey material. Even though they had been conversing in whispers, they were surprised when Eunjin stirred in her sleep before finally opening up her eyes.

Krystal's POV

"You're awake. Did we disturb you?" I asked as Eunjin lifted herself up and leaned against the couch.

"I heard someone teasing my girlfriend." Eunjin replied before placing her head on my shoulders. "You. Isn't lunch time over? Why aren't you back at your office?"

Eunjin pointed her finger at Sunny-unnie, who had taken a seat on the opposite couch, as she rolled her eyes at Eunjin. Sunny-unnie explained that she didn't have much thing to do in the office at the moment.

"I'll go and heat up the food first." I said and was about to stand up when Eunjin stopped me.

"It's okay. I'll do that. You just sit here and rest first. You've already took the effort to prepare lunch for me so I'll do my part in serving it up for us."

I could only nod my head as Eunjin smiled at me, showed a fist at Sunny-unnie before making her way to her desk where the hand-carried bag was. I just observed everything that Eunjin did from heating up the food from the microwave oven in her office to setting up the food on the table.

"Unnie, are you joining us?" I asked Sunny-unnie who shook her head.

"I came here because I heard some rumors in the Ladies earlier. About how the Director was lacking of concentration during a presentation and how the presenter seemed to have a little crush on the Director herself."

Eunjin choked on her water when she heard what Sunny-unnie had said. Widening her eyes at her before turning and grinning nervously at me, I heard Sunny-unnie laughing in her seat.

"I leave you two lovebirds to enjoy ur lunch. By the way, don't forget our dinner gathering tonight." Sunny-unnie stood up, ruffled Eunjin's hair before waving her hands at me and walked to the lift.

************************

"You're going overseas?"

Even Jessica was surprised to find out that her little sister had decided to further her studies in New York. Krystal had just informed the rest of the girls about her decision when we were waiting for our food to be served at the restaurant.

"I did talked it out with Omma and Appa about it, a few days ago. Initially, it was just a discussion between me, Sulli and Luna but the 3 of us got so excited about the whole idea that we went ahead to research and survey for a university that could cater to all 3 of our courses. Coincidentally, the only university that caters for us is in New York. So when I told and briefed Appa and Omma about it, they were quite satisfied with it." Krystal explained further as all eyes were suddenly on me.

"Mwo?" I asked while blinking my eyes rapidly.

"Did you know about this?" Yuri asked as I nodded my head.

"Just last night." I answered before explaining further that I was fine with Krystal's decision to further her studies.

"Is that why you didn't sleep well and ended up looking like a zombie when you came to work earlier?" Taeyeon asked as I just chuckled.

"She even got caught by one of the staff for not concentrating on the presentation during one of the meetings." Sunny added on as I just pouted.

"Who was the presenter?" Yuri asked as Sunny informed that it was a 'Kim Hyuna.' "Kim Hyuna?"

Yuri's eyes widened as she looked at Taeyeon who seemed to look shocked too. Both of them suddenly shook their heads before turning to look at me.

"You better watch your back."

Both of them said at the same time while pointing their fingers at me. They ended up laughing at my confused look before giving each other a high-five.

"What was that about?" Sunny asked before a call interrupted our conversation. Sunny excused herself to answer the call as the waiter arrived with our food. Our conversation stopped momentarily as everyone was busy looking at each other's food until Sunny came back. "Chorong won't be joining us. She said that she had something on and apologize for the last minute withdrawal."

I noticed a slight change in Sunny's expression as she gave me a small smile before turning her expression into a bright one while looking at her food.

"Is everything okay between you and Chorong?" I asked as Sunny gave me a clueless look. "You don't have to pretend in front of us. We're your friends. I can see the change in your expression when you came back from answering the call earlier."

"Everything's good. I mean.. if you don't really meet each other that much, there's nothing to argue about, right?" Sunny replied.

"And there's also nothing to talk about." Tiffany ended on as she placed a hand on Sunny's shoulder. "What's wrong, Sunny?"

"I'm not even sure. Ever since the workshop closed and both of us got busy with our new jobs, we've been spending lesser times together. It's either she's too tired to meet me or even if we do meet up, it's just for dinner."

"Is Eunjin giving you a lot of work?" Jessica asked as I pointed a finger to myself and had a dumbfounded face.

"Anni. I'm actually quite free at work. Since mine is a new department, not much is at hand." Sunny explained before she smiled at us. "I think it's just a momentary thing. Hopefully, once Chorong had settled down with her new job, she would be able to spare more time for me."

Everyone else nodded and showed Sunny a thumbs up before she changed the topic and asked about Yuri's and Taeyeon's reaction just now.

"That's right. I'm curious too. Who is this Kim Hyuna?" Krystal asked before stealing a glance at me. "Is she the one who gave you a back hug earlier?"

"It was not a back hug." I tried to explain but I swallowed my saliva when I saw Jessica glaring at me. "I swear it was not."

Krystal started narrating about what she saw when she arrived at the office this morning and Sunny added on about what she heard from behind the cubicle in the Ladies. So basically, their stories did pointed out to my innocence.

"Since Eunjin is proven innocent, back to the question. Who is this Kim Hyuna and why does Eunjin need to watch her back?" Tiffany asked as our attention now turned to Yuri and Taeyeon.

"She's well known to be a seductress at work. If I'm not wrong, she's with the Sales Department." Taeyeon started off with a nod from Yuri.

"It seemed that she rised up to her position as a supervisor because of her capabilities to entice traders to use our courier services by being flirtatious with them. Men or women, both genders were easily charmed by her." Yuri added on as a frown appeared on my face.

"Is that true? I haven't actually heard of this lady before until this morning when she presented." I said with a straight face. "Seems like there's too many things on ground that I'm not aware of."

"Obviously. Since you're the Director. You have thousands of workers in your company and there is no way you can actually know every single one of them." Jessica said before she turned to face Yuri. "But what I'm curious about is, how did the two of them knew about this Kim Hyuna?"

Yuri and Taeyeon looked at each other before they started chuckling while scratching the back of their necks. Even Tiffany was staring at Taeyeon, waiting for an answer from them.

"We sort of... at the cafetaria.. we heard.." Taeyeon stammered her words before Yuri smacked her back and caused her to wince.

"Yah!! Why are you even stuttering as if you're guilty?" Yuri nagged at the midget beside her. "We met her at the company's cafetaria a few weeks ago. She came up  to us and introduce herself. So we exchanged greetings. That's all. And about her personality, after she left, our colleagues actually told us to be careful of her and explained some info about Hyuna to us. Which is why we told Eunjin the same thing too."

"But there seem to be something amiss from your explanation just now, Yul. Why did Hyuna came up to both of you out of a sudden?" Sunny questioned them further as Yuri turned to look at Taeyeon momentarily before letting out a sigh.

"I admit. It's my fault." Taeyeon finally confessed before she looked at Tiffany with puppy eyes. "Hyuna caught me staring at her which is why she came up to us. She then said that she had not seen us before in the company and then we exchanged greetings. That's it. Finished."

Less than 5seconds later, we heard a squealing sound from Taeyeon as Tiffany pinched her arm while Jessica had a smile on her face. Seemed like she was proud that Yuri was not being flirtatious and was even able to explain everything confidently with nothing to hide.

"You are going to get it from me when we get home, Kim Taeyeon. You and your for butts." Tiffany grumbled as Taeyeon rubbed her reddened arm.

"But I still love your the most." Taeyeon accidentally said out loud, causing Tiffany to blush as she covered her face while the rest of us just chuckled at Taeyeon's remarks.

"Everyone.. I thought we were actually talking about Krystal's overseas studies in the first place? How did we end up talking about butts instead?" I asked as everyone looked at each other before we broke out into laughter again.

The girls decided to finish up our dinner quickly so that we could proceed to our dessert and continued our conversation. After the waiter cleared the table and took our dessert orders, Krystal continued answering questions about her impending departure.

It was also my first time hearing it out from her since we were not able to talk much last night. Seeing how she seemed excited when she explained about her plans and how she and her friends had sorted some stuff out, it made me realised that Krystal was really looking forward to further her studies. She had the same interest as her sister and even Jessica was listening in awe at her explanation. She had wanted to help Jessica with her business and with that mindset, she was determined to enhance her skills and knowledge.

"So when will you be leaving?" Tiffany asked the ultimate question which I myself didn't dare to do so.

"If everything is in order, then I have about two months time before I flew off." Krystal answered as she turned to look at me.

I saw the look in her eyes. It was obvious that Krystal was in a dilemma when she answered Tiffany's question. Because both of us had not actually sat down and talked things through. All I could do was to smile at her and nod my head.

"Then we'll have to spend as much quality time together as possible before you leave me behind." I pouted as Krystal smacked my shoulders lightly.

"I'm not leaving you. Two years will go by as soon as possible and you'll have me back in your arms sooner than you think." Krystal replied and we heard grumbles around as the girls complained about our cheesiness.

"Does that mean you won't be around during our wedding?" Taeyeon asked as everyone just realised it.

"I could join the one in LA." Krystal replied after thinking for a short while.

Since Tiffany and Taeyeon had decided to hold their weddings at Tiffany's hometown and also in Seoul, all the girls were agreeable to Krystal's answer. The one held in LA would be a smaller event where only family members and close friends would be invited. Most of the girls would be going to the LA wedding too.

"Seems like you're all geared up to go, Krystal." Sunny said as she teased me about being left alone. "But then again, with Krystal not around, doesn't that mean Eunjin would be expose to 'predators' around her? Kim Hyuna is not the only one having a huge crush on our charming Director."

Yuri and Taeyeon quickly agreed saying that even at their own departments, some of the co-workers were really smitten with my presence.

"Eunjin has this scheduled routine where she would visit every department once a month. And on that day itself, you can see the girls in my department literally dolled up just to wait for her arrival." Taeyeon smirked.

"Even the guys at my department thinks that she's cool. They envy me for being friends with her." Yuri added on as I could only facepalmed myself.

"Yah... You all are making it difficult for Krystal to leave with a peaceful mind." I grumbled as Yuri, Taeyeon and even Sunny meronged at me.

"Don't worry, Soojung-ah ar.. I'll make sure that Eunjin behaves." Jessica said before glaring at me as I pointed a finger at myself and looking dumbfounded again.

"I don't think you have to worry so much with Eunjin. Compared to Yuri and Taeyeon, I think she's more steadfast than them." Tiffany's remarks caused me to give her a thumbs up while Yuri and Taeyeon pouted. "But I would be more worried about the people around her. They might take advantage of her good-nature."

"That is when the 3 of us will come in to protect her. We'll be the Eunjin Protection Squad." Yuri said with an arrogant pose as Sunny and Taeyeon also posed like superheroes. "And we'll make sure that she won't feel lonely when you're not around."

"Dorks." I rolled my eyes at them before everyone broke out into laughter.

************************

As much as I wanted to spend more time with Krystal, it seemed like it was getting harder as the days went by. With the new merging of the company with a local airline, there was more paperwork, more meetings and more time spent in the office. I've been staying back at work for the past two weeks due to the workload, reaching home almost at 11pm every night.

In that whole period, Krystal had not been coming over to my place as she herself was busy with her work and also the preparation that needed to be done for her to further her studies. She told me that she needed to send a portfolio of some of the works that she had done at her sister's company. Jessica and Tiffany were helping her out with that while Sulli and Luna were helping her with the school preparations which they needed to do too. Since I was coming back late almost everyday, we decided that it's best for her to stay at her sister's place so that she won't be alone while waiting for me to return home.

A beeping sound was heard from my phone, distracting my thoughts. As usual, it was a message from Krystal.

I'm home. Have you had your dinner? - Krystal

Before I could type a reply, another message was received.

Will you be staying late again tonight? - Krystal

Her second message stopped my fingers from typing the reply as I turned to look at the stack of files that was on my table. Most of them needed my signatures while some needed me to go through before approving. 

I'll eat later. Might be staying in the office for a while. There's still a lot of work to do. - Eunjin

After sending the reply, I took a picture of the stacked files and sent it to Krystal. Along with a sad emoticon.

Oohhhh... okay. - Krystal

It was a short reply from Krystal but the amount of guilt that was building inside me, caused me to let out a deep sigh. I knew that she had wanted to spend time with me even though she had not said it outright. Through her frequent and consistent messages to me, I could understand her feelings. Looking at the clock in my office, I saw that it was already 7pm. Taking a moment to close my eyes, I took half of the stacked files and stuffed them into my backpack. Grabbing my blazer from my seat, I made my way to the lift.

It was almost 8pm when I reached Jessica's apartment and pressed the doorbell. Tiffany opened the door and looked surprised to see me there since I didn't informed anyone that I was coming. Tiffany ushered me in as I made my way to the living room. Jessica and Krystal were huddled up together on the couch, watching a movie.

"Look who's here." Tiffany came from behind, walking past me and sat down on the single-seater couch.

"Eunjin?" Krystal's eyes widened as I just smiled at her and showed the box of fried chicken that I had bought while on the way to their place. 

Krystal disentangled herself from her sister and made her way towards me. Thinking that she wanted to take the food from me, I lifted it towards her but I was not prepared for the sudden hug that she gave me instead.

"I miss you so much." She whispered as I felt my heart swelled at her honest confession. "Thank you for coming even though I know that you're very busy."

"Is that for us?" Jessica's words broke our embrace as I nodded my head. "There's some rice left in the kitchen. You haven't had your dinner, right?"

I shook my head and was about to ask her on how she knew when Jesssica blabbered on.

"Soojung was just complaining to us earlier about how she's worried that you might be skipping meals because of being too concentrated with work." Jessica explained as I ruffled Krystal's hair who was already pouting by now.

"Krystal, why don't you separate the chickens for us? You and Eunjin can eat in the kitchen and me and your sis will eat our share here in the living room." Tiffany suggested as Krystal nodded her head and took the food from my hand.

While waiting for Krystal to prepare the food, I sat down for a chat with the two girls who asked about work.

"It's quite hectic at the moment. Since K-line is merging with us, they become one of the major shareholders of the company. It's one of Harabeoji's long-time plans to establish the company into greater heights. K-line is an uprising airline and this exposure benefits both company. But the workload is horrendous." I sighed and shook my head.

"This is the first major project that you are handling ever since taking over from Harabeoji, right?" Jessica asked as I nodded my head. "I know that you're very busy with everything but I hope that you can spare some time for my sister. I'm not trying to be selfish and all of us are trying to understand your position but two weeks without seeing each other, even on weekends, don't you think that's a long stretch?" 

I bit my lips and nodded my head with guilt.

"Unnie... Didn't I tell you not to nag at Eunjin?" Krystal's voice was heard as she carried a plate of chicken out to the living room. 

"It's okay. Your sister is right. I should learn how to manage my time better." I smiled and stood up, grabbing the plate and putting it on the table. "I'm hungry. Let's go to the kitchen."

Grabbing Krystal's hand, I led her to the kitchen where I saw that Krystal had set up the food nicely on the table. We sat down facing each other and started eating in silence for the next 5 mins.

"I'm sorry. For not spending time with you the past two weeks. I promise you that I'll find time for the both of us by this weekend, okay?"

"Did you bring your work home?" Krystal ignored my words and pointed to my backpack that I had carried along earlier.

From the fullness of my backpack, the answer was obvious. Since it was important and confidential documents of the company, I didn't dare to leave it in the car just in case, it got stolen. Nodding my head, Krystal let out a sigh. She had always dislike it when I brought home workload as she always insist that home is a place that I should be able to relax. 

"Are you planning to stay up late to go through all that?" She asked and I was about to answer when Krystal continued talking. "Didn't I tell you.... Forget it. I'm not hungry anymore. I'll be in my room."

Before I could say anything or even stopped her, Krystal walked away and left me alone in the kitchen.