It was almost five o'clock in the afternoon and Miran was trying to see the talent in the romantic novelists that she got in charge of. She's been involved in the editing world ever since she first barged in her father's office when she was a kid. At some point, she did think of joining her father's publishing company but that changed quickly when she entered college.

"How is it going, cadet?" Hyungsik asked her while passing her desk to the coffee machine; he almost forgot they had one in that mess.

Miran bit her tongue, cursing him in her head instead of doing it out loud.

"Not well..." She mumbled, her eyes reading the Wikipedia page of Nam Woohyun, "He is a mess. I'll have to speak to him as soon as possible." She continued professionally.

Hyungsik raised an eyebrow and leaned against the desk.

"Myungsoo! Miran needs Woohyun's address!" He screamed loudly for the entire floor to hear.

Myungsoo looked up before he nodded and started to write something on his phone. A few seconds later, Miran's phone buzzed with a new message from an unknown number.

"How do you know my number?" She asked, her eyes widening at the thought of suspicious things happening while she was focused on work.

"It's on your application paper, genius." Hyungsik replied before taking a sip from his coffee. His nose scrunched when he realized it was sour so he added a lot more sugar into it. A lot more.

"We wouldn't sneak around and peek into your personal stuff. That wouldn't be proper." Ji Soo responded, his eyes blinking innocently.

"Yet," Hyungsik coughed when he passed Miran's desk to go back to his. 

Myungsoo hid his face behind his computer screen trying to hide his laughter.

Unfortunately and fortunately, Yura didn't forget about Miran and when break time came -which was actually dinner time- the former model barged inside the office and snatched Miran with a bright smile.

They ended up in a restaurant with Yura telling Miran everything that's happened in those two years of her personal life. So, in one hour Miran learned that Yura comes from a modest family but she never missed anything because her parents gave her everything she needed; she wanted to work as a Sociologist during her high school years but ended up modeling to pay for her college tuition; it seems she and Jonghyun are still friends even if the relationship ended and she has a crush on her neighbor.

"What about the company?" Miran asked when Yura finally shut up.

"I have been working here for the past year and a half and I am really content with the work I do," The older girl started on the way.

Miran glanced at Yura from the corner of her eye, a bit doubtful, "It's not exactly sociology."

"True but I do help people. I like to think that Chanyeol and I are the ones who actually keep the staff and readers going."

"Because you are the ones in Human Resources." Miran stated, Yura nodding happily.

“We are the ones who spend a lot of time researching for talent and every new author sends his questions to us; a lot of stupid questions come every single day,” Yura explained as they got closer to the building, “Working in this company is complicated but you’ll grow to love it bit by bit.” The older brunette added before she entered first, leaving Miran behind with a confused expression.

“Wait-“ She had to run to get in time to the elevator so Yura wouldn’t enter it by herself, “What do you mean by that? Is it because of the people I work with because-“

Yura shook her head and pressed the first button.

“Let’s start from the very beginning.”

Once the elevator doors opened, Miran’s eyes widened; it was empty in the halls but people were definitely around because there was a lot of trash.

“Human Resources are on the first floor. As you can see, we are leaking a bit,” Yura trailed, pressing on the button to close the doors faster since Miran’s poker face was a good sign that she wasn’t impressed.

Yura pressed quickly on the 5^th floor button and straightened her posture, knowing that someone will be on the other side when the doors open.

“5^th floor is the Creative Department, right?” Miran broke the awkward silence, surprising Yura.

“Ye-Yes. Did Hyungsik tell you already?”

Miran bit her lip before shaking her head, “Under some circumstances,”

Yura raised an eyebrow just as the doors opened revealing a short man standing right in front of them. Choi Jungseok was staring at Miran with the same poker face as before. He walked inside the elevator and pressed the button for the 9^th floor.

“Are you getting the tour already? I thought Hyungsik has to do it since he is in charge of you.” Jungseok started in a firm voice.

Yura shook her hands, feeling a bit awkward even if she knew Jungseok.

“It’s just, we’ve known each other and I wanted to catch up and-“

“This is a place of work not a café to hang out in.”

While Yura shut up and bent her head, feeling small under Jungseok’s gaze –even if the difference in height was clearly in Yura’s favor- Miran couldn’t help but respect Jungseok’s professionalism.

“Are you enjoying yourself, Miran?” He suddenly turned his attention on her.

Jungseok could see it from miles away; she was going to mess with Hyungsik’s professional life and they were going to fight a lot. Truthfully, Jungseok couldn’t wait to see just how much ruckus she was going to cause.

“It’s alright. I just never expected to work with Choi Jinhyuk’s biggest fanboy.” She responded bitterly.

“The 6^th floor, Miran,” Yura whispered, nudging her colleague. Miran was ready to walk out when Yura pulled her back, “It's good to know about this place but it’s best not to go in.”

Miran glanced at Jungseok, finding far more trust in his persona than Yura’s.

"Why not?”

“People from sales are always stressed because they have the greatest responsibility. It’s usually our fault when they are angry and Hyungsik is the main reason. If you want to mess with him, it’s the best place to begin with."

Yura was ready to push Jungseok for giving such evil ideas but seeing as Miran was still staring at the doors, she thought that she might have gotten scared. That proved to be incorrect when Miran walked into the Sales Department with a light smirk, leaving the two behind.

“I’m not a child. I will be able to find my way around.” Miran mumbled, her big eyes taking in the surroundings.

Sales wasn’t a bad place with bad people as everyone else said; if anything, everyone seemed very busy and they were all screaming at each other for something or another.

“Amy, where is last week’s report on horror books!”

Some guy asked from another office to a girl who was printing something.

She glared at the man before responding.

 “Ailee not Amy! Goodness, Junho! I left it on my desk; right next to your desk, in case you forgot.” She became softer towards the end, her left eyebrow twitching in annoyance.

Miran watched Junho as he stumbled towards the desk next to his, quite hard with all the stuff and people roaming in one room. Sensing how everyone was not in the mood to give bad information on a colleague, she spun around and turned towards the elevator. Unfortunately, around the midway, someone opened the door on the right and rushed out, colliding straight into Miran. Both of them fell, Miran getting the bigger blow.

“Sorry, sorry, sorry. I just imagined no one was out here with how crazy it’s in Junho’s office,” The girl started to ramble, “That bastard has been annoyed for a while now and I have a few ideas who’s behind it.” The girl trailed, helping Miran up before realizing she had no idea who she bumled into.

“Ah, right. I’m Choi Miran, the new member of the Editing Department.” She slowed down towards the end, aware of how bad were the relationships between editing and sales.

The girl scanned her face before laughing loudly. 

“You’re the editor that fought with Tiffany Hwang, aren’t you?”

Well, that was definitely a career achievement. Miran was intrigued how she found out since she was working in sales. That must have showed on her face because the new girl shook his head.

“I’m not working here. I’m Gong Seungyeon, by the way, “ She smiled and bowed before continuing, “I work in Publishing, right above Editing. We’ll see a lot of each other from now on. Many new authors have been accepted by the company.”

“Wonderful,” Miran mumbled.

“Why are you here if you work in publishing?” Miran asked while walking down the hall.

Seungyeon was a very bright girl, very pretty too, and seemed nice enough to answer her questions.

“A script goes into editing before it’s brought to us and we’re practically continuing with the stressful job. You only edit while I continue the process until we have the final product. Unfortunately, as of lately, there are a lot of copy cats trying to become the next Choi Jinhyuk." Seungyeon continued, her shoulders falling just remembering the paperwork on her desk.

“It’s everywhere, isn’t it?” Miran asked, feeling like Jinhyuk’s presence was following her everywhere, even if not physically.

Seungyeon shrugged before calling for the elevator.

“Not exactly. Just romantic authors but then again it is probably easier to write romance than other genre. I’m not too fond of it either. I prefer horror.”

Seungyeon got off at her floor while Miran got out at hers. The editing department was by far the one who seemed like everything was only honey and chocolate, the staff having no idea how much stuff was going through the rest of the building. Miran only took one step on the corridor when Yura appeared from around the wall, pushing her towards the bathroom. She closed the door and turned to a confused Miran with a certain glint in her eyes.

“Have you seen the new gossip article? It's about Soohyuk. It's going viral, a girl from the lobby has been showing it around."

"And?"

"It says Soohyuk is in a relationship. With you." Yura explained, watching Miran carefully.

Miran blinked twice before she felt a shiver go down her spine; that was atrocious.

“He’s my best friend. Why would I do something like that when there are many other fishes in the lake?” She asked, her voice not wavering once.

Yura tilted her head to the side, a frown on her pretty face.

“I saw it on SNS. He said it himself,” She grabbed her phone and showed the article to Miran.

The wide eyed editor read it carefully before blushing faintly from anger.

“He’s lying,” She said calmly as if it happened before.

Truthfully, it did and even if she could bypass it back then, it was a whole different story now. Now Miran had a job and had an image to sustain so she grabbed her phone and dialed Soohyuk's number. He responded right away but she didn't let him speak.

"You are nuts if you believe I will let you drag me into your affairs again." She started coldly. 

"What if I say it is for your benefit as well? To get revenge on Minho." 

Miran raised an eyebrow and glanced at Yura before she decided.

"What's the plan?"