"Hi," the guy seated beside Hyejin said. She stopped fiddling with her new computer for work and politely waved back. He rolled his chair over to Hyejin's desk. 

"I guess you should already know me from introductions just now. Lee Taehwan. Lives in Jamsil. Likes playing Fallout Shelter. Has never peed in his pants before. Nice to meet you, new colleague," he winked and raised his hand out for a high-five. 

"I don't do formalities," Hyejin blurted, then realised what she just said didn't make sense. Taehwan was staring at her weirdly. Crap. Did she just repeat what Chen had said to her in the morning? This was all Chen's fault. She had to get that awkward meeting out of her mind — her mistake was all that was going through her mind the whole morning. "No, wait, I mean —" She hurriedly added. "Ah, erm, I'm not eating lunch today." 

What? Even Hyejin couldn't believe her own awkwardness. She felt like a mentally retarded person. 

"Okay…" Taehwan's hand slowly moved back down and gripped the chair, and there were a few seconds of awkward silence. Hyejin gulped. 

"Friends?" She suddenly asked, lifting her hand for another attempt at a high-five. Taehwan's jubilant smile reappeared on his face as he high-fived her back. "Friends," he affirmed, before rolling his chair back to his own desk. 

It took less than five seconds for him to roll it back up to Hyejin again. "So, have you ever peed in your pants before?" 

Hyejin rolled her eyes and laughed. "Get back to organizing your desk, mister." 

Jongdae stared at his new team of workers. He wondered when he would be able to move back to his original team. Sure, he liked being the leader for once instead of just an employee, and his new teammates seemed nice and cooperative, but he did miss his old team. He was a sentimental guy despite his playful personality. 

"I don't do formalities." 

Turning his head, he looked towards two trainees who were talking to each other. He knew the female one was Hyejin. Of course he did. But the male one… He checked his list again. Ah, so his name was Taehwan. Jongdae would make a mental note. 

And, wait — wasn't what that Hyejin just said what Jongdae had told her in the morning? 

Jongdae watched as she grew awkward again. Unconsciously, he chuckled. Her eyes always grew big when she found herself in an awkward situation, he noticed. 

"Hello…? Jongdae-senior?" 

Jongdae flinched and blinked at the person standing in front of his desk. Since when did she get here? He hadn't even noticed. 

He cleared his throat. "Yes, Jinkyung?" The hardworking one, he thought. Jongdae felt a scintilla of relief for remembering her name too. 

"I was wondering if we were allowed to go for lunch now. Since, you know, it's lunch time," she said as politely as possible. 

Jongdae checked his watch. "Yeah, of course! I meant to tell you all when you could go for lunch but guess you did some research again, huh?" He joked. 

Jinkyung smiled and bowed. "I'd asked a senior while waiting in the morning. Thank you." 

She went up to Chaeyoung, a relatively quiet trainee, tapped her on the shoulder, and they both stood up. "Hyejin, Taehwan, do you want to come with us? We can have our first team lunch!" 

Hyejin stood up. Jongdae's eyes followed her. "Nah, I'll skip today because I don't really feel like eating lunch. I'm not hungry. Maybe tomorrow?" She suggested. "See y'all later. I'll just pop by the toilet for a bit." She left the room, wobbling on her high heels. 

"Count me in, ladies!" Taehwan chirped as he joined them. He stood up enthusiastically. "Do you want to join us?" He directed the question to Jongdae, who refused lightheartedly. He never went out for lunch in his two years here in WS Group. Jongdae always either packed something from home to eat in the office or ate in the workers' canteen at the ground floor. 

"Remember to come back before one-thirty!" Jongdae shouted after them after they had left. 

Ugh. These stupid high heels. Hyejin grunted as she tried to regain her balance. She wasn't ever going to wear these again — she'd much rather stick to flats, although it wasn't as formal as high heels. She had such a hard time walking around the building when Chen brought them around in the morning. At least flats didn't make her think she was going to fall and die every five minutes. 

She stumbled back into her office, expecting to find it empty, and was surprised to see Chen there, alone, munching on a sandwich with his eyes glued onto the computer screen. When he didn't say anything, she decided to initiate the conversation — or at least she tried to. 

"You… didn't go with the rest?" She asked apprehensively. 

"I don't have a habit of eating lunch outside the office," Chen replied, taking his gaze away from the computer screen and fixing it on Hyejin. 

Hyejin nodded slowly. It was awkward — again. She glanced out of the door at the empty corridor. "I, erm, suddenly am hungry. I think I'll… go find Jinkyung and —" 

"How would you know where they went?" Chen asked. He noticed Hyejin was using formal language again. 

"Oh, I, erm, am going to eat by myself, I don't need to know where they are." 

"You just said you were going to meet Jinkyung." 

"Did I?" Chen watched as Hyejin's eyes grew bigger once again. Chen nodded. 

"Your eyes are big again," he commented, causing Hyejin to shrink back. 

Hyejin didn't know what to do. So she just bowed. A deep bow, before scrambling back to her seat. She was certain Chen found her weird, and probably a little irritating too. Oh, and disrespectful at the same time. 

Hyejin was dying to go out with the rest now. Why had she refused? She should've gone out even if she wasn't hungry. Now she was stuck alone in the office with Chen. Talk about a situation being awkward. 

"Hwang Hyejin?" Chen suddenly called. 

"Yes, sir!" Hyejin stood up straight from the shock Chen's sudden call had caused her. Her body had suddenly gotten stiff — and there was a cramp rising up her left calf. The pain pierced through her leg and Hyejin soon found herself completely immobile. She tried to make her expression look as painless as possible, but her insides were screaming at her to do something about the stupid cramp. 

"Come here for a moment, can you?" 

"I can't, I'm sorry!" Hyejin forced out, before grimacing. Her body unfroze just enough for her to reach down and rub her calf. She saw that Chen was looking at her weirdly and walking over instead. "Don't—"  She shouted, then stopped and spoke in a softer tone. " — Come over. I'll go there. Give me just a minute." 

"What happened? Are you like, cramping up or something?" Chen asked. He came over anyway. 

"No, I'm not," she replied at first. "But maybe. Okay, yes, I am." She eventually caved in and sat back down, rubbing her calf. She felt Chen's eyes on her as she tried to alleviate the pain gnawing on her leg. 

"You know, you don't have to speak in such formal language to me." 

Hyejin couldn't tell if he was being sarcastic. "I'm sorry for this morning," she boomed loudly anyway and bowed while sitting down, which seemed to scare Chen. 

"What've you got to be sorry for?" 

"I'm sorry for dropping formal language. It was a grave mistake on my part." 

It seemed to make things worse for Chen. He now had a very confused expression on his face. Hyejin could feel her heart thumping hard. She had said something wrong again, hadn't she? 

"Didn't I just say not to speak in formal language with me?" He asked, with a questioning look on his face. 

"You did, it's just… you're my senior."  

Chen's face seemed to relax, which calmed Hyejin down a bit. He let out a beam. "Since you say I'm your senior you should listen to me," he said. "I asked you all in the morning to treat me like a friend and not a senior, right? Since I'm a friend it's okay to drop the honorifics and call me by my name."  

Hyejin was silent. "Yes… sir." 

"Sir?" Chen side-glanced her. 

"Yes, Chen." 

"That's better. And Chen — so you do remember the name that I used to troll you this morning! You used that because don't remember my real name, right?" he laughed. 

"No, it's not that," Hyejin flushed. "Your real name is Jongdae. Kim Jongdae, right?" 

Jongdae nodded and laughed. "Yes, it is. And don't worry, I was kidding about you not remembering. Call me Chen anytime." He smiled, but the smile slowly faded. Soon his nose was up in the air, and he looked like he was sniffing for something. "It's back again," he commented. 

"Huh?" 

"The smell," Jongdae said, scrunching up his nose. "It's so strong." 

Hyejin tried to sniff the air, but didn't smell anything out of the ordinary. "What smell?" 

"The smell of… flowers. Like, you know the kind. When you go to spas and everything and they serve you this fancy tea? That kind. I've been smelling it when we were downstairs at the lobby and it was following us when I gave you all the tour and just when I thought it was finally gone its back here again." 

Hyejin paused. "Are you talking about… Jasmines?" 

Jongdae clapped once, like he finally remembered. "Ah, yes! That's right. Jasmines. That's the name of the flower. I think someone brought scented air freshener to the office and placed it everywhere." 

Hyejin looked down at the floor and considered for a second if she should tell the truth. Her seat felt a little too warm for comfort. "Actually… I think it's coming from me," she admitted. Jongdae stared at her, and Hyejin nodded. "I put on a teensy bit of jasmine scented perfume today. I put it on everyday, in fact. I love jasmines." 

"Teensy bit! I don't think so. The smell is so strong I bet the team in the other room can smell it," he joked. 

"Really?" Hyejin lifted up her arms and sniffed her right arm, then her left one. "Is it that strong?" She didn't remember anyone in college commenting about the smell being excessive. The only time some guy had done it was when he was trying to hit on her. (Hyejin had ignored him and walked away, of course.) 

Jongdae nodded. "Very strong. Especially now. Don't wear that perfume anymore," he joked. Hyejin knew he was joking about asking her not to wear the perfume, but she didn't know what to do — again. So she just bowed — again. And hoped Jongdae didn't think she was a freak. 

Jongdae didn't say anything for a while as he suddenly bent down. "Does it still hurt?" He finally said as he gestured at Hyejin's calf. "Your leg, I mean." 

"It's getting better. Don't worry too much, it'll go away in a while." 

"Who said I was worried?" Jongdae asked, looking upwards at her, and Hyejin knew she had used the wrong words again. What was with her and today? She felt her face burn and she didn't dare to look up at Jongdae in case he caught her embarrassment. 

Soon she heard laughter again. "Just kidding! You like to take jokes seriously, don't you?" Jongdae chortled, and Hyejin's face flushed. She closed her eyes and repeated to herself that it was okay, it was okay, it was okay. Jongdae was, honestly, driving her mad. If only he was a trainee as well — she would have landed a few punches on his face by the end of the conversation. 

Hyejin might have been awkward and shy when she first met with people, but after she got familiar with them, or had enough encounters with them, she flared up easily. She was a hot-tempered person by nature, and she hoped she wouldn't have to show that side of her to Jongdae too soon. Or anyone else, for the record. 

______________________________

Home seemed like a place way too far for Hyejin. Work had started to come in by the late afternoon, and together with the whole feeling of unfamiliarity and the stress of being in a new place, by the end of the day when she got to finally go home she felt tired. Really tired. The worst thing was, the subway chose to break down on that day, and she had to figure out a bus route home — which, of course, took much longer and added on to her lethargy. 

Hyejin wondered if her college friends experienced the same thing when they were at their first day at work too. Most of her friends had already started work — some hadn't, of course — and she knew there would be one person who empathized with her. Or at least she hoped so. 

Grabbing on to a pole to prevent herself from losing her balance in the packed bus, she used her other hand to maneuver the controls of her phone until she reached her group chatroom she shared with her university mates. 

Hey, she typed. Was your first day at work tiring for you? Because I'm literally exhausted right now and I'm only through my first day. Anyone free to lend me a listening ear now? 

She looked up from her phone and tried to look as nonchalant as possible while waiting for a reply. Hyejin, for once, was looking forward to feeling that familiar vibration in her hand to signal that she had received a message. 

The bus jerked a few times, and the doors wearily, at every passing bus-stop, creaked open and close, open and close, open and close. 

No message. 

One stop at a traffic light. Another at a junction. Past Dongdaemun. 

Still no message. 

"Are they all that busy?" Hyejin muttered to herself as she dejectedly placed her phone in her bag. At this time, she needed a friend. Taehwan wasn't counted, and so was Jinkyung and Chaeyoung. Much less Chen (she still thought the name sounded better than Jongdae). Hyejin needed someone she felt totally comfortable with, someone who knew her beneath the awkward facade she had on at work today. 

However, she knew that no message meant that no one was really willing to be that 'someone'. 

And that just made her sad day sadder. 

[a/n: welp my writing style just crushed itself into a ball and plummeted onto the thrash w this fic oh no and i have a major chinese exam tomorrow! which makes me kinda nervous but ah well enjoy some jongdae]