Anger had replaced the initial shock once she accepted that Tiffany was in no danger whatsoever. She looked to be more like a willing participant instead. Taeyeon exhaled furiously through her nose, prepared to make her presence known until she saw Tiffany pull away from the taller woman.

“Stop, Sunmi. I already told you that I can’t do this anymore.”

Sunmi her lips and held back the urge to mess up Tiffany’s lipstick tint with the use of her lips once again. “Why not? I need a reason. You can’t just say no to me out of nowhere and expect me to take it like some obedient dog.”

Tiffany tilted her head. “That was the arrangement though. No questions, no answers. Just , right?”

“Well I’m not ready to give up on the .” Sunmi said, pressing up against Tiffany with a purposeful grind. “Not when we have such mind-blowing ones. Don’t think you can get rid of me so easily, Tiff.”

Tiffany’s cheeks flushed red as she shook her head to clear her thoughts. It wouldn’t be fair to Taeyeon. She already committed to her ‘girlfriend’ role. Speaking of Taeyeon, was it just her mind and guilt playing tricks on her? She swore she heard Taeyeon’s voice just a minute ago.

“Ahem.” Taeyeon cleared with an expression that was eerily calm. It was the same kind of tranquil of expression she’d usually have on when she was ready for battle against music stations or corporations. Tiffany wasn’t allowed any time to recuperate from it before her boss continued with, “Who the is this, Tiffany?”

“T-Taeyeon, I didn’t realize you were here.“ Tiffany’s eyes jumped from Taeyeon to the floor. Shame was written all over her face, and Taeyeon was a little appeased by it. She should feel embarrassed about the circus show that Taeyeon was forced to witness.

“No .” Taeyeon harshly responded, eyes blazing between her secretary and her supposed sidepiece. “I believe my question still remains unanswered, Ms. Hwang.” And unlike this Sunmi chick, Taeyeon expected an answer from her employee.

“She’s, well, she’s my f-friend.”

Sunmi snorted. “I believe the term is buddy, Tiff.”

Tiffany blushed harder than she ever thought was humanly possible when she saw Taeyeon’s eyes widen in shock and disgust. This couldn’t go any better. Dammit Sunmi.

“From what I overheard, I believe the proper term is ex- buddy.” Taeyeon responded with controlled poise.

“Really, Tiff? You’re dumping me for this loser? Seriously? Look at how she’s dressed!” Sunmi exclaimed as she pointed her finger towards Taeyeon’s five-thousand dollar suit.

Taeyeon arched a brow at the woman. What did Tiffany see in this woman? All she had was a tight , pearly white skin, and a pretty face, but she clearly lacked the brains and had a dirty mouth to top it all off.

“Sunmi,” Tiffany warned the woman since she wasn’t making the situation any better, “Just go. We’re done. I shouldn’t have to say it twice.”

Rolling her eyes, Sunmi headed to the door. “Whatever. Have a nice, boring, vanilla- life with the loser, Tiff.”

“I am not a loser.” Taeyeon muttered under her breath as the door shut with a slam. “And you, Ms. Hwang. I shouldn’t have to remind you that you’re an adult.” She wagged her finger at the secretary as if she were lecturing a child. “You work for me and represent my company as well. Do not associate yourself with people like her again.”

“Excuse me?” Tiffany asked, offense written all over her face. Who the hell did Taeyeon think she was? She can ‘associate herself’ with anyone she damn well pleased!

“You heard me. It’s an embarrassment to have to witness something like this. I do not expect a second time.” Taeyeon allowed her index finger to glide across a mirror, collecting the dust from it.

“If I may be so bold to speak, I understand that you’re my boss, but what I do outside of work, especially in the privacy of my own home, does not concern you or the company whatsoever, Taeyeon.”

Taeyeon narrowed her eyes into slits. Feelings of warmth and appreciation for the woman in front of her were long gone now and would probably never return again. “I would advise you to choose your words carefully when speaking to the person that has the power to keep your employment or not. I will not be disrespected.”

Tiffany leaned against the wall, not deterred by the threat or giving a rat’s about manners at the moment. “It works both ways. If you disrespect me, I’ll disrespect you right back.”

Left stunned by Tiffany’s sharp response, Taeyeon took a step back to try to wrap her head around her secretary’s sudden change in attitude. She had never been spoken back to. Ever. Especially not someone of lower status.

The only possible reason for her behavior was most definitely the contract that was looking more and more less appealing.

Taeyeon glared at her secretary. “You tricked me, didn’t you? All those ing ridiculous rules that I had stupidly agreed to just to get you to be my pretend girlfriend were just so you can stab me in the back?!”

Tiffany scoffed incredulously. “You can’t be serious. One, they’re not ridiculous. It benefits both of us and it protects me as well since the only one that can get hurt from all of this is me. Two, I remember you saying that those conditions were great.”

“I obviously wasn’t in my right mind to agree to them since it’s clear to me now that choosing you was a mistake. A huge mistake. One that I should rectify.”

Tiffany’s arms fell to her sides. “What are you saying?”

“Consider both contracts terminated.”

Tiffany’s mouth dropped. “Y-You’re firing me?”

Taeyeon crossed her arms over her chest, ignoring the tiny prick of pang from witnessing Tiffany’s look of betrayal and hurt. “Unfortunately, I believe so.”

“You can’t do that! We had a deal!” Tiffany shouted hysterically.

Shrugging indifferently, the silently shocked Taeyeon turned her back to the secretary and walked out. “Don’t bother showing up to work tomorrow.”

Once she made it to her car, Taeyeon slumped in her seat with a deep sigh. The night could not have ended any worse. Even though she had gotten rid of the messy ‘fake girlfriend’ ordeal, she had undoubtedly tossed out the best secretary she had ever had in the process.

“Who needs her anyways?” Putting the car on drive, Taeyeon accelerated and drove off.

***

A week had gone by without her secretary Hwang, and things were indeed a catastrophic mess.

Taeyeon sighed for the umpteenth time as she looked down at her dessert that hadn’t been touched. When she felt a presence hovering above her, she tilted her head up to find Tiffany frowning at her.

“Tiffany, what are you doing here? This room is reserved.” Taeyeon said, focusing on the ex-secretary’s face and not the pink blouse and black shorts that made her question why she had never seen the secretary wear anything but her usual uniform in these past five years.

“Oh, sue me,” Tiffany sarcastically said as she offered herself the seat in front of Taeyeon.

Her former employer narrowed her eyes darkly. “If you’re asking to be my fake girlfriend again then forget it.”

Tiffany rolled her eyes in annoyance. “Really? You think I give a about playing the role of your girlfriend? I was fine with being your secretary. I worked my off and contributed so much of my sweat and time for this company. How dare you throw me away as if I were insignificant and replaceable?”

Taeyeon’s eyes shifted slightly. She wouldn’t admit to Tiffany that her week had not been a walk in the park. She realized these past couple of days how much she had relied on Tiffany. She couldn’t function during meetings, lost the track of time for almost every schedule, and she had to get her own food and snacks. It was awful! It was like she had lost half her brain.

“I want my job back.”

Taeyeon arched a brow at Tiffany’s fierce command. “Why would I give you back your job?”

“I earned it. You can’t fire me for no apparent reason. I have not broken any rules of the company’s to warrant an extermination of my contract.”

“You had a partner!” Taeyeon hated that she was annoyed at the fact that Sunmi even existed in her secretary’s life.

“That’s a personal issue, and you were there to see me end things with her, so it is no longer a problem.”

“Why did you even end it? If that thing had told the truth, it sounded like she and you had a good arrangement.”

Sighing, Tiffany picked up a nearby spoon and scooped up a piece of the warm brownie into . She hadn’t eaten the entire day because she was too busy debating whether she should fight for her job back or not.

“I did it for you.”

“For me?” Taeyeon pushed the dessert plate toward her former secretary, slightly amused as Tiffany distractedly and unknowingly continued to devour the brownie.

“I already agreed to be your pretend girlfriend. Of course I had to stop seeing Sunmi. I didn’t even expect to see her that night. She wasn’t supposed to be there and neither were you.”

“It sure looked like you didn’t mind seeing her there.” Taeyeon gruffly responded at the memory of the two of them making out. It still made her want to puke for some reason.

Tiffany held her fork in the air as she arched a brow. “It was just a kiss.”

“That was not just a kiss. You were eating her face as if she were oxygen.”

“Fine. A goodbye kiss.” Tiffany shrugged, setting the fork down to dab the corners of with a napkin.

Taeyeon shook her head with a doubtful expression. “You don’t just kiss someone like that and not want more.”

“Can you just drop it? I’m telling you that it didn’t mean anything.”

Taeyeon scoffed, already standing up to leave because she was pissed, annoyed and done with replaying the image of the kiss over and over in her head. Her dinner wanted to crawl up .

“For god’s sakes.” Tiffany suddenly bent forward and yanked Taeyeon to her, capturing her former boss’s lips with her own. “You can be so stubborn and annoying sometimes.” Tiffany said in a raspy voice when she finally pulled away.

“W-What was that? Why did you kiss me?” Taeyeon had in a breath when she realized she had been holding in her breath the entire time. Her lips tingled and her legs felt wobbly over such an innocent and childlike kiss. It barely lasted two seconds.

“To prove to you that a kiss can be exactly just that—a kiss—and nothing more.”

Hearing that had hurt her ego more than anything. That kiss was sudden and had affected her more than any other kiss, yet Tiffany had been so unaffected by it. “Nothing more, huh?” Without thinking, she wrapped her arms around Tiffany and roughly kissed her with much more movement and technique. This was better. She liked being in control, which was what had been missing these past couple of days.

When she was done, Taeyeon moved back to find Tiffany breathing hard and looking dazed. “Just a kiss, right?”

Tiffany swallowed hard and fixed her wrinkled shirt. “R-Right. That’s all it was.”

Taeyeon pulled out her wallet, ignoring the curious stare that Tiffany was giving her as she threw a couple of bills to pay for her meal. When she finally turned to Tiffany, she said, “No kissing. Add that to the contract.”

“Wait.” Tiffany said, unable to contain her excitement. “Does that mean I’m rehired?”

“Yes for both contracts. Feel free to order yourself some food. I left enough for your meal.”

“Thank you, Ms. Kim.” Tiffany respectfully bowed as Taeyeon nodded and headed toward the elevator.

She had taken five steps across the room before making the mistake of turning around to find Tiffany finishing off her dessert with what appeared to be innocent but damn near sensual off her spoon. Deciding against her better judgment, Taeyeon walked back to her secretary and without so much as a warning, grabbed Tiffany’s chipmunk cheeks during mid-swallow and gave her one last, final kiss.

It was a good thing that they were adding the no-kissing rule, because she didn’t think she’d be able to stop if she ever kissed Tiffany again.

sorry, I couldn't update sooner. Haven't had much time b/c of exams every week @_@ I just wanna sleep yo >_<;;

btw, I've started writing a oneshot, so I'm trying to finish that up quickly. I know y'all would rather I update on this story, but the idea has been teasing me too much to ignore, so I had to give in to it xD