"How's everything at the hospital?"

Tiffany showed a thumbs up to her friend whom she was meeting for lunch as she chewed on her food. The two girls started to chat about other topics before Tiffany suddenly had a thought in her mind.

"By the way, I have this random thought. How did you manage to get me a place in that hospital, Jessi? Because, what I heard from my colleague was that they were not actually recruiting anyone at that time. Do you by any chance, knew anyone in the hospital?" Tiffany asked out of curiosity.

"Of course. I'm close with the Director of the hospital, Soojin-unnie because I'm friends with her younger sister." Jessica replied with a poker face while Tiffany looked surprised.

"The Director? You mean Doctor Choi?" Tiffany asked to reconfirm as Jessica nodded her head. "So the younger sister that you're friends with, must be Choi Sooyoung-ssi?"

"Choi Sooyoung-ssi?" Jessica repeated Tiffany's words before she started to laugh. "It's the first time I heard someone calling Soo, so formally. She's actually the same age as us, just like Taeyeon."

Tiffany almost choked on her food when she heard Jessica mentioning Taeyeon's name nonchalantly. Luckily, she managed to calm herself down and control her expression so that her friend would not notice it. 

"Taeyeon?"

"Sorry. I didn't realise you didn't know who Taeyeon was. Both of them are always together that it seems like they came in a package. They studied in the same university in London. I knew Sooyoung since high school. She was the one who introduced me to Taeyeon." Jessica explained briefly and even though Tiffany was anxious about asking more questions with regards to Taeyeon, she had to control it as she didn't want Jessica to suspect anything.

"I guess I'm lucky that you had the connections. If not, I won't be able to get this job easily." Tiffany said sincerely. "I really owe you a lot, especially since I'm even staying at your guesthouse without paying rent."

"It's okay, Tiff. Rather than leaving it empty, at least it has some uses for you. I bought it because it's cheap anyway." Jessica replied and was about to continue talking when her phone rang. "Speak of the devil."

Jessica answered her call and Tiffany started to become anxious again since she thought that it was Taeyeon who was on the other line.

"What's up, Soo?"

Luckily for Tiffany, Jessica didn't manage to catch that slight pout on her expression because she was looking away. Tiffany stared at her food while Jessica continued her conversation with Sooyoung.

"Hold up. Let me ask her first." Jessica's remarks caused Tiffany to look up as her friend turned to face her. "Sooyoung is asking if it's okay for her to join us for lunch. I know that we're almost done but she's a quick eater."

"I don't see any problem with that since I'm free after this. Is she coming alone?" Tiffany asked as Jessica nodded her head.

Within 20 mins, Sooyoung arrived at the restaurant with a big grin on her face. Taking a seat beside Jessica, it didn't take long for Sooyoung to decide on her order as she handed back the menu to the waiter. 

"Hi, Tiffany. Nice to meet you again." Sooyoung smiled widely as Tiffany returned a smile. "Sorry for my sudden appearance and disturbance to your meet-up but thank you for allowing me to join you both for lunch. I don't really fancy the idea of eating alone."

"Are you telling me that you would skip lunch today if Tiff  had not agreed to allow you to join us?" Jessica asked as Sooyoung gave a cute pout. "Anyway, how come you don't have a lunch companion today?"

"Of course I would still eat lunch but maybe I'll have it back in my office. Taeyeon was suppose to have lunch with me but she had some emergencies to attend to."

"What kind of emergencies?" Tiffany asked but instantly regretted it when she noticed how surprised Sooyoung and Jessica were, at her sudden show of interest. "Sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt your conversation but being a doctor, I got anxious whenever I hear the word 'emergency'. Sorry about that."

Tiffany was glad that Sooyoung and Jessica seemed to believe her explanation as Sooyoung replied that the emergencies were work-related matters. Not wanting to be more obvious about her curiousity, Tiffany could only nod her head at Sooyoung's remarks.

"Why didn't you invite your cute crush for lunch then?" Jessica teased as Sooyoung let out a sigh. "Wae?"

"She's been busy lately, ever since that fight in her club. Thanks to that tanned monkey, Inspector Kwon." Sooyoung clenched her teeth but she let it go when Tiffany repeated that name out loud. "Yes, Inspector Kwon. Oh yah.. I think you've met her before. Unnie said that she talked to you when she came to the hospital that night." 

"You've met Kwon Yuri?" Jessica had a huge grin on her face while Sooyoung rolled her eyes as Tiffany looked a little baffled with the expressions. 

"She's got a crush on that Inspector."

Sooyoung's comment  came as a surprise to Tiffany, not only because she was unaware of it but because of the tangled connections among them.

"You like her, Jessi? But she's on bad terms with Taeyeon, who is a friend of yours." Tiffany's remarks caught Sooyoung's attention, who asked if she had actually met Taeyeon before. "Actually, I did caught a glimpse of her that night. Honestly, I didn't have a good first impression of her."

Sooyoung and Jessica laughed out loud at her comments which caused Tiffany to become confuse.

"What's new anyway?" Sooyoung said in between her laughter before she turned to look at Tiffany. "Almost everyone we knew, never had a good first impression of Taeyeon, including me."

Sooyoung was about to explain further when her phone rang and she excused herself from the table to answer it. 

"So why didn't you tell me earlier that you had met Taeyeon when I mentioned her name? You pretended like it was the first time you had heard it." Jessica asked with a look that showed she knew Tiffany was hiding something from her.

"I wasn't pretending." Tiffany's reply didn't sound convincing and Jessica was about to say something when Sooyoung came back to the table.

"Tae needs me to go through some legal documents. Luckily, I'm done with lunch." Sooyoung said with a grin. "I should pack some lunch for Tae too. Knowing her, she might have skip lunch because of what happened."

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

"I thought it's your rest day though. So why are you so busy that you can't even reply my messages?"

Tiffany stole a glance at Jessica who was busy looking around at the clothes in display before biting her lips.

"I'm sorry. I was really caught up spending time with my friend that I had forgotten about replying."

"Your friend is a guy or a girl?"

Tiffany almost rolled her eyes at the question by her boyfriend before she calmed herself down and answered that it's a lady by the name of Jessica. A childhood friend of hers, who had migrated to Seoul after graduating from middle school.

"Okay. I believe you. I need to attend an important meeting now so I'll call you again tonight. Bye."

"Bye. Take..." Tiffany couldn't complete her sentence as she heard the click sound of an ended phone call. 

"Are you okay?" Jessica's question caused Tiffany to look up as she gave a weak smile to her friend.  "Who called?"

"Mick." Tiffany replied before telling Jessica about the conversation between them. Jessica already knew who Mick was since Tiffany had told her about him before.

"What does he mean by saying that he believes you? You don't need him to believe you when it's obvious that you're telling the truth. Is he always this way?"

Tiffany paused for a while to think before shaking her head. "He was quite cool and understanding when we were friends."

"Guys are usually different when they are in the friend zone. They will be charming and nice just to attract your attention. I speak from experience." Jessica commented confidently.

Tiffany just giggled as she remembered that Hyorin too had mentioned the same thing before. "By the way, what does Sooyoung work as? She mentioned something about legal documents earlier."

"Oh.. Soo works for Taeyeon. As the company's lawyer and finance advisor." Jessica replied to which Tiffany already knew the answer. "They are very close. Both of them. Very supportive of each other. Even though I know Sooyoung longer than Taeyeon, their friendship seems deeper than ours. I think it's got to do with their studying period in London."

Jessica started narrating to Tiffany about how Sooyoung was being a shy and timid student even though she's majoring in law studies. "She was not confident of her english and had trouble communicating well with her classmates. Not many of them wanted to be her assignment partner because of her personality at that time. So during the first 3 months that she was there, Sooyoung was actually very stressed out. Then she met Taeyeon."

"So Taeyeon also majored in law studies?" Tiffany asked as Jessica shook her head.

"Taeyeon majored in busines management but she was the one who gave Soo the morale support to be one of the top students in the Law Faculty when they graduated. Taeyeon helped Soo with her english and boost her confidence level in communicating with others. But surprisingly, Taeyeon is not a talker herself. The irony of it." Jessica chuckled at her own words. "Even when I got to know her, she doesn't talk much. Only speaking when she has to but I've seen how she communicates with Soojin-unnie and Soo herself. Feels like two different personality. Soo did mentioned to me that Taeyeon will only open up herself to people whom she's extremely comfortable with."

"She doesn't seem to be such a friendly person. Like a spoilt brat." Tiffany commented as Jessica laughed. "Walking around with all her bodyguards beside her, looking at others as if they owe their lives to her... I don't like these kind of people." 

Jessica stopped laughing and stared hard at Tiffany with a frown. "How did you know that she has bodyguards?"

Tiffany explained about the very first time that she had seen Taeyeon and how her colleague had briefly described Taeyeon.

"Ouuhhh... no wonder you said earlier that you didn't have a good first impression of Taeyeon. But don't you think that her expression was like that because she was injured that night? Not many people actually walk in to the hospital while smiling away, right?"

Jessica's question caused Tiffany to think about the whole situation and she realised that what Jessica said was logical. Maybe Taeyeon was really in pain that night and was just controlling it when she had looked at her. Slowly, Tiffany looked at Jessica and nodded her head in agreement with her friend's statement.

"By the way, it's my first time seeing you getting angsty about someone new. Usually, you'll be very open and excited when making new friends and will not be judgemental at all. Is she someone who has actually triggered your interest?" Jessica squinted her eyes and smiled teasingly at Tiffany who rolled her eyes.

"Of course not. Why would I be interested about her? I don't even know her at all." Tiffany was starting to become defensive as Jessica continued to . "Let's just stop talking about her. Aren't we suppose to watch a movie together?"

Tiffany walked away from Jessica and made her way towards the cinema entrance while Jessica just chuckled.

"I know you well, Tiffany and I can sense that you're hiding something from me." Jessica mumbled to herself as she made her way to quickly follow Tiffany from behind.

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

"I'm really sorry about all this mess, Boss. I should have been more careful and observant of my surroundings." Minho kept bowing her head as Taeyeon just kept quiet.

A knock on the door caused Taeyeon to look up as Sooyoung walked into the office. She looked surprised to see Minho standing in front of Taeyeon's desk with cuts and bruises around his face. Yoona was standing at the corner of the room with a solemn look while Taeyeon looked expressionless.

"Minho, what happened to you?" Sooyoung asked as she made her way towards the centre of the room.

The tall bodyguard kept his silence and looked down while Sooyoung turned her attention to Taeyeon. Before she could say anything, Taeyeon stood up and made her way to stand in front of Minho while leaning against her desk. She had her arms folded as she stared hard at him.

"Minho. I can understand that you're very passionate about this job and you're only thinking of protecting the person that you're assigned to. But you have to remember, there are always going to be other people around, innocent people who are not aware of what your job is. Take this as a learning lesson and I'll be taking you off from your duties for the next 3 days." Taeyeon voiced out her instruction as Minho immediately lifted up his head.

"But Boss, Taemin is already away on leave to spend time with his family for this whole week." Minho replied in a worrisome tone as he thought that he might have caused trouble to his remaining friends at work with additional coverage duties.

"Don't worry. I would not burden Jonghyun, Kibum and Jinki with more workload. I've already made arrangement. So, just go home and recuperate well. Don't have to worry about work here. Come back when you're feeling much better." Taeyeon's words was firm as Minho could only nod his head.

Minho then bowed his head to Yoona and Sooyoung before making his way out of the office. Taeyeon looked up at Sooyoung and gave her a small smile before letting out a sigh.

"Before you explain anything to me, a quick question. Did you and Yoona ate your lunch already?" Sooyoung asked as both of them shook their heads. "I thought so too, which is why I bought lunch for both of you."

Sooyoung waved the paper bag of food in the air and placed it at the centre table. She gestured for Yoona and Taeyeon to eat first so both of them made their way to the couches in the centre of the room. No one said a word as they started eating with Sooyoung stealing bits of food from both of them.

"This is nice. Where did you buy it from, Unnie?" Yoona asked as she her lips.

"I had lunch at a restaurant where Sica and Tiffany were eating. It was my first time there though. I was so hungry that it only took me a few minutes to scan through their menu and ordered my lunch." Sooyoung laughed at her ownself as Yoona grinned.

"Tiffany?" Taeyeon asked after she swallowed a mouth of the rice that she was eating. "Who's that? Sica's friend?"

Sooyoung nodded her head as she took another spoonful of rice from Taeyeon's bowl. "She's Sica's childhood friend. The doctor that Sica recommended Soojin-Unnie to work at the hospital."

"Ouuhhhh... That doctor. She's pretty." Taeyeon's comment caused Yoona and Sooyoung to be surprised.

"You've met her before?" Sooyoung asked as Taeyeon nodded her head.

"I saw her that night after the fight at the club. I've never seen her before so I suspected that she's new and so far, the hospital had only recruited one new doctor. So I just piece the puzzles together." Taeyeon explained but Sooyoung shook her head.

"I'm not interested to know how you had guessed who she was. I'm interested with your comment when you said that she was pretty." Sooyoung squinted her eyes and pointed a finger at Taeyeon as a cheeky smile appeared on her face. "You heard that too, right Yoona?"

Yoona nodded her head excitedly as it was the first time that she had seen Taeyeon showing any interest in anyone. Both of them looked at Taeyeon with teasing smiles as the girl rolled her eyes and stood up suddenly.

"I'm done with lunch. Once you're ready, I'll explain what happened to Minho just now." Taeyeon walked away to her desk and started flipping through some documents on her table.

"Yah, Kim Taeyeon. Don't try to change the topic here. I want to talk about Tiffany." Sooyoung grinned as Taeyeon pretended not to hear. "Aish, this shorty. Always avoiding matters of the heart."

"I heard that. That shorty word." Taeyeon spoke without looking at Sooyoung, with her eyes glued to the documents. 

Sooyoung stuck out her tongue at Taeyeon, without her looking, before making her way to seat in front of Taeyeon. "So, what happened to Minho?"

"Jonghyun and him were assigned to take care of Irene today. When they sent her to school this morning, Minho saw a guy casually putting his arm on Irene's shoulder when she was making her way to the school entrance. Minho noticed that Irene looked shocked and taken aback by that guy's action so he guessed that Irene didn't know that guy or didn't like what he did. He asked Jonghyun to wait for him in the car while he ran after them and grabbed the guy's arm before twisting it to the back. A commotion started and it seemed that some of the guy's friend came over to help him out. Irene told me it was like 7 vs 1. By the time Jonghyun came with the security guard to help Minho out, they were already sprawled on the ground but obviously, Minho also suffered some injuries." Taeyeon ended her explanation before letting out a sigh.

"So you need me to put up the papers, just in case the school were to look for you for what happened?" Sooyoung asked but Taeyeon shook her head.

"I've already settled with the school earlier. That guy was an outsider, not a student there. The security guard explained that those group of boys like to mingle outside the school entrance and disturbed the girls coming in and out of the school. I guessed they chose the wrong girl to disturb this time round. But it had caused a lot of commotion with passerby gathering around and trying to break the fight. Some of them were accidentally hit because of the tussle. The school dean said that he would look into the matter and increased the security there while I also settled with the public that got injured, giving them money to get treatment for their injuries." Taeyeon leaned back into her chair after her explanation.

"In this case, it's not Minho's fault. He was just trying to protect Irene." Sooyoung commented as Taeyeon just stared at her blankly.

"Unnie didn't blame Minho though." Yoona intercepted the conversation as Sooyoung nodded her head.

"I know. I heard what she told Minho earlier. Just wanted to take the opportunity to  only." Sooyoung grinned at Yoona before looking at Taeyeon. "So what did you want me to help you with?"

"I've got a feeling that we might get a visit from a familiar person due to the fight since it had involved the public. That familiar friend who is not like a friend." Taeyeon said as she stole a glance at Yoona before continuing her words. "Inspector Kwon. So I want you to prepare for her visit."

"Don't worry. I'm always prepared for her visits." Sooyoung replied as she noticed Yoona keeping herself busy by clearing the food on the table. "Anyway, like I said, it's not Minho's fault and I can always ask the security guard to vouch for it."

"Another thing is, I've made my decision on which personal bodyguard that I want for Irene. So I need you to check through her background and see if she's suitable for that post." Taeyeon took out a file from her drawer and handed it over to Sooyoung.

"Arraseo. I'll settle this by today. By the way, the children's party is coming soon." Sooyoung reminded Taeyeon who nodded her head. "Let me know when you want to shop for the kids' presents. Unnie said that she want to tag along this year so that it can save her the hassle of sorting through the toys for individual kid." 

"I'll check my schedule and let you know. Yoona, arrange for Kibum to cover Minho's duties for today. I'll make another arrangement for tomorrow." Taeyeon gave the instruction to Yoona who bowed her head and exit the office to look for Kibum.

"When is the new bodyguard starting her job?" Sooyoung asked as she flipped through the documents that Taeyeon had handed over to her earlier. "Kang Seulgi. Not a black belt holder yet?"

"She's still young. Slightly younger than Irene. She will still continue her training at the martial art school while reporting for her duties. I will arrange for that."

"Why didn't you just get one that's a black belt holder and have completed their training?" Sooyoung asked, a little confused with Taeyeon's decision.

"This girl actually goes to the same university as Irene but different faculty. It'll be easier for them to be friends since they are schoolmates even though Irene is older than her. At least she won't be uncomfortable around Irene like how Yoona was when she just started working for me."

"Having a cold-looking boss who don't talk much, is not something that it's fun to look forward to, am I right?" Sooyoung replied with a poker face.

Sooyoung was the only person who could talk in such a direct manner to Taeyeon and got away with it. Taeyeon only rolled her eyes at Sooyoung's comment and kept her silence since she herself knew that it was the truth.

"Even Tiffany said that she didn't have a good first impression of you." Sooyoung blabbered on as she noticed the sudden change in Taeyeon's expression who seemed a little interested. "Wae?"

"Nothing." Taeyeon shook her head and continued to flip through the documents in front of her.

"For a split second there, I could swear I saw a tinge of interest in your eyes as it suddenly lit up." Sooyoung continued to press on as Taeyeon ignored her. "Seriously, Tae. Don't you think it's time for you to look for a companion?"

"I've got no time for that, Soo. Can't you see the amount of paperwork on my table now? Do I look like someone who can be committed to a relationship?" Taeyeon came up with an excuse. "Furthermore, you should understand it better than anyone else as to why I rather be alone."

"Work will always be there, my friend. It's neverending. I know why you're avoiding to be in a relationship but I always feel that there's a way to handle it." Sooyoung replied. "You're not going to end up like your parents, Tae."

"Nothing is for sure. And I'm not going to put another person's life at risk because of my own selfishness. This topic will end here. Don't you have urgent things to do at the moment?"

With that, Sooyoung walked out from Taeyeon's office with a heavy heart.