Emily walked out of school at the end of the day, in search of Jiro. She spotted him getting onto his motorbike while speaking with Wes and Brent. With her eyes glued onto him, she ran in the direction of her car before abruptly turning the other way, realising that it wouldn't be a good idea to follow him secretly in her own car. Instead, she ran out of the school campus and hailed for a taxi.

Nylon, Wang Zi and Lorene watched their friend run around suspiciously through the window of the staff room. "What is she up to?" Wang Zi muttered in confusion, "She doesn't usually act so strangely."
Lorene looked at Emily once again and shrugged, "I suppose it's to do with the new student, Jiro," she said as she pointed to Jiro.
"Why would it though? Emily never acts like this because of her students," Nylon pointed out.
Wang Zi chuckled, "What? Didn't you hear their argument in the hallway the other day? That guy is enough to bring her out of character," he explained, amused.
"Then what do you think she's doing?" Nylon asked and the other two shrugged.
"Let's stop spying and let her be," Lorene giggled before pulling away from the window.

Emily jumped into the taxi quickly, "Excuse me sir, can you follow that yellow motorbike?" she asked, pointing at Jiro.
The driver looked at her weirdly before shrugging and following Jiro. 

After about 30 minutes, Emily looked out of the window in confusion as they drove into the city centre. The only buildings around them were tall skyscrapers and offices. "Why would he come here?" she whispered. After a couple more minutes, Jiro parked his bike and Emily quietly got out of the taxi after paying the driver.

Silently and staying hidden, she followed him as he entered a large company building. "Does he work here?" she asked herself, "If he works in such a grand place then why is he back at school?" she added, staring at awe at all the busy office people walking around with files and speaking on their phones. The interior was so lavish and distracting that Emily almost missed Jiro pressing the number 15 on the lift. Before the doors of the lift closed, Jiro looked in her direction which made her heart beat quicken in panic. Immediately, she grabbed a newspaper from a person walking by, used it to cover her face and ran towards the stairs. 

Running up the stairs for 15 floors in heels posed a big problem for Emily, who had to take a rest after 3 flights of stairs. She groaned, "Emily, you know that he works here now as some rich businessman so why do you insist on following him?" she asked herself aloud. "Because it's suspicious as to why he still needs his diploma when he works in such a place!" she answered herself in a tired tone. Quickly, she pulled off her heels and ran up the stairs bare footed. 

Although Emily was an outsider and was acting weirdly, many people who saw her hurrying up the stairs did not give her a care in the world as she just looked like another stressed out employee who was struggling with a deadline due to the fact that she was wearing similar formal wear as them - thank God she didn't look as suspicious as she felt.

By the time Emily reached the 15th floor after her sprint up the stairs, she was practically crawling up the final few steps in sheer exhaustion. She groaned when she realised that Jiro had beat her to the 15th floor and now he was nowhere in sight. She also realised that this floor didn't seem as lavish as the others, it was just corridoors of storage cupboards with cleaners walking around. 

"W-Wh...what...?" she breathed out in confusion through her pants. She put on her heels and looked around confused, "This is the 15th floor right...?" she muttered.

"Indeed it is," a voice said, causing Emily to jump. She turned around to see Calvin who approached her. He smiled down at her, "Are you a lost new employee-" he asked as he leaned forwards to have a better look at her lanyard that was around her neck. He instantly paused when he read her name, "King Kong Jie Jie?" he exclaimed in surprised.
Emily choked on air after hearing that nickname. "You know who I am?" she asked slowly.

Calvin nodded, "I'm Calvin, Jiro's good brother," he replied, "And he told me all about you," he explained.
Sweat dropping, Emily muttered, "Of course he did..."
With his perpetual smile, Calvin continued, "Are you here for Jiro?" he asked, curiously.
Emily nodded, "Do you know where he is?" she asked.
Calvin's smile fell slowly and he folded his arms, "Jiro told you?" he asked before scoffing with a smile. He continued before she could reply, "I didn't know you two were so close so suddenly," he said, "No wonder he gave you such a weird nickname, King Kong Jie Jie."
A small vein popped in her forehead, "That doesn't mean you have to call me that too," she hissed under her breath before showing him a smile followed by an awkward laugh. She helplessly nodded slowly.

Calvin's smile brightened and he pointed in the direction he had just come from, "He's down there. If you hurry you might catch him; he'll be in room 3106," he informed before heading to the lift, "It was nice finally meeting you, King Kong Jie Jie, see you around," he said as Emily weakly waved at him. Once the lift door closed and Calvin disappeared, she released a deep sigh of relief, glad he was gone.

Emily followed his directions and walked down the corridor, looking for the door with the number 3106 on it. She stopped when she heard a voice.

"Jiro! Your performance has been lacking lately," an annoyed voice barked, "Do you want to keep this job or not?!"
"I'm sorry boss," Jiro's familiar voice replied, "I'll work harder."
"Hurry up and go down to the 2nd floor, there was a large accident in Block C," the voice ordered.
"Yes, sir," Jiro replied before walking in Emily's direction.

The moment Emily heard footsteps coming towards her, she quickly slipped into the corner and pressed up against the wall, trying to stay out of view. She held her breath until Jiro walked past her. When she came out of the corner to look at Jiro, she was so shocked by what she saw that her hands flew to  to silence her gasp.

Jiro was in his school uniform minus his blazer. However, he was wearing cleaner clothes over it such as a mask, rubber gloves and an apron. He was carrying a bucket of cleaning essentials like sprays and disinfectant. 

"J-Jiro's... a cleaner...?" she whispered in surprise, "Why? Why is he working here of all places?" Of course... he didn't have any qualifications so how would he find work? But despite that, Emily really didn't expect Jiro to be working in such a place. 

'So this is why he can't have tutoring sessions after school... and this is why he's so tired in school...' she thought, silently following him. She got into the next elevator and pressed the button to the 2nd floor and many thoughts swirled around her mind during the long and silent journey down there. For some reason, she felt her dislike towards Jiro decrease - he didn't seem so bad and instead, she felt apologetic towards him. 

Once the doors opened with a ping, she slipped out and continued to watch him. She watched him clean up for about half an hour before he moved to the bathrooms. She watched him from a distance, seeing how hard and obediently he was working in the unfair conditions. One after another, new tasks arose for him and Emily could see the exhaustion building up on his face so clearly. At one point, she even swore she had heard his stomach rumble.

"Why are you working so hard, Jiro?" she whispered, finding it hard to watch. She never knew how difficult the job of a cleaner was and the fact that it was Jiro - someone who she'd never expected to be doing such a thing - almost made it painful. To her, he was an outsider in this environment and was out of place doing this job. He was the stupid golden monkey who covered her in mud, argued with her whenever he had the chance, was childish in class, the stupid one who called her King Kong Jie Jie so freely despite the rules she had laid out for him. He didn't fit in there at all. 

She gasped. "Why do I care?" she suddenly asked herself, "Emily, you don't like him, remember? Why aren't you enjoying this?" 

"Cyndi!"

Her attention was averted when Jiro picked up his ringing phone.

"How are you, future Mrs Wang?" he asked with a teasing smile and brightened up face, "Missing me, eh?" he chuckled as she spoke on the phone so happily and without a care in the world despite his exhaustion. It almost made Emily feel bad.

"So he didn't make it up when he said he was engaged..." she whispered in shock, remembering what her cousin had said. 

 "He might be going through things that you can't see. If you give him a chance and earn his trust, he might open up to you and you'll see that he's actually a nice person."

"Was I... was I really wrong about him...?" she muttered quietly, listening to Jiro speaking on the phone.

"You go on and have dinner without me. I'm sorry, babe, I'm really busy at the office tonight. Our client's giving us a hard time and I'm stuck with dealing with them," he spoke, "... I know Cyndi... sorry.... I know I haven't had dinner with you for a while.... why don't I take you out this weekend to make it up to you? ... great... bye Cyndi, love you." 

Emily had to admit that she was touched after putting two and two together. 'He's working hard for Cyndi's sake, isn't he? He's even lying to her about work and has gone back to school to improve both their lives... I guess he really is a caring person...' she smiled a little, 'She's lucky to be marrying such a hardworking man...'

"Emily?"

Emily's eyes widened and her body froze, stunned. Jiro looked at her with mild shock on his face but wearily. He seemed to be too tired to have much of a reaction despite the long nap he'd had in class. Emily could only stare back at him as words knotted in .