If you are wondering how the total opposites got together, then let’s take a travel back in time, specifically 3 years ago.

It was when the company, MYOUI, was skyrocketing off the charts in the business realm. It was all thanks to the hard-working employees the company has as much as it was Myoui Mina’s persistence in being the best at everything.

It was Mina’s focus on her work, and solely on her work, that kept her motivated to climb to the top and not some random admirer’s encouragements.

It was another normal day at the company. Mina arrived at the building, her heels clacking making an intimidating sound for those who were to witness the intimidating aura of their boss. In her hand was a cup of her usual coffee while on the other was her phone, scrolling through the unending number of emails and texts being sent to her. As soon as she arrived at her office, she pocketed the phone and took a deep breath before pulling the glass door.

There was her own work space, neat and organized, the weather was perfect, therefore giving her the right amount of warmth and light through the floor to ceiling windows. Her desk, the furniture, all the way it supposed to be, minus the person sitting on the couch who has been sending her lunch boxes for 5 months straight.

Nayeon, the intern, looked at Mina’s way and immediately flashed her annoying smile. Mina internally groaned and ignored the bright greeting of the intern. She walked past her to settle herself comfortably on her office chair, settling her things down and starting up her desktop. She ignored the small usual ramble the intern gets into as she follows her to her desk, ignores the way she settles the lunchbox to her table neatly, ignore the overall happy mood the intern is in as her smile never left her face when she entered the room, she ignored it all until the intern puts down the lunchbox on her desk and quietly scurried away outside of her office, making sure to make minimal noise as she closed the door.

Once the intern was out, the CEO immediately reaches for the lunch box and unravels its contents, revealing all the home cooked foods decorated cutely by the bunny looking intern. As much as Mina tries to fight the urge to not indulge into any of Nayeons home cooked meals, she can’t deny the girls effort to give her these amazing home cooked meals. And so, she got the utensils that came with the lunch box and started to munch on the flavorful food. She wouldn’t admit it, and probably would never admit it, but she has grown into the foods that the intern would cook for her.

Of course, the lunch box thing didn’t go unnoticed by her friends. Before they wouldn’t ask about it since Mina likes to be early, so they thought that this would be something temporary for in case the CEO is in a hurry. But they noticed that the lunch box became a constant at Mina’s desk whenever they would visit her in the office. They asked about the lunch box, but Mina would shrug it off as nothing important, often making excuses that seemed passable for her friends.

It seemed odd to Mina that her friends never noticed Nayeon enter her office to just give her the lunch box. She figured that maybe Nayeon is always early to enter the company as she gets her faster than Mina to deliver her food.

But that didn’t matter that much to Mina as her first and only priority is to better her company. And so Mina slips into her work mode after she ate the lunch box clean, reminding herself to give it to the guard to pass it on to Nayeon.

Although the lunch box thing has been long “resolved”, of course her friends aren’t going to stop teasing her about it. They were at a restaurant, minutes away from their building, with Mina eating “peacefully” as her friends, not so subtlety, talk about the lunch box.

“The chicken here is really good! But it’s not as cute as the one in Mina’s lunch box a few days ago,” Sana teased as she slices herself another piece of chicken.

“Yeah, I know for sure Mina didn’t cook that for herself cause the presentation was too cute for Mina’s liking,” Momo squealed as she remember the cute design of the chicken and the garnishes and sides that came with it.

Mina was silently fuming in her seat but chose to hold herself back since she wants to finish her lunch in peace. Although she may agree on the fact that the food looked cute and delicious, she didn’t, and would never, ask for this treatment. She lets the intern do her thing for wanting to look “kind” in front of her since she is new to the company and she values first impressions. She didn’t know how and why she lets Nayeon drag this whole lunch box thing for this long. Was it because she liked the food? But she has a lot of money to buy for 5-star meals. Was it because of the presentation? But it’s too cute for her liking. Or maybe because she liked the fact that someone is waiting for her in the office with a bright, bunny smile and a hot, homecooked meal?

That left Mina speechless. She never thought of it like that. Was it really?

Was it because of the food?

Or the person?

No.

NO!

Mina shooed that thought out of her head at the thought of her possibly liking that intern. She would like to keep everything in her office professional and keep the personal stuff out of her business.

But as Mina’s going through her thought process, her friends took this as a sign that she is thinking of something- or “someone”.

“Ooh, Mina’s thinking,” said Sana, her eyebrows wiggling suggestively at Momo.

Momo nodded, “Look, her spoon is frozen midway. Mina.exe stopped working,” she giggled.

Mina, realizing that indeed her spoon is halfway to , puts it back down and realized that she lost her appetite through that whole train of thoughts.

And it all started with that stupid teasing.

But then again, why didn’t she stop Nayeon when she had the chance?

“Ooh, Mina’s thinking again. Are you thinking about who made your lunchbox?”

“Yeah, we can help you find them Mina,”

“And maybe arrange a potential date with them,”

“Ooh, that’s a good idea!”

NO!

“Absolutely not,” Mina growled as she glared at her two companions.

This made both Sana and Momo shut up and avoided the angry glare being sent their way.

Mina pushes her plate away since she thought that she wouldn’t want to eat anymore. And so, she pushes herself out of her seat, “Get back to work if the both of you are done,” and left the restaurant.

Both Sana and Momo were guilty for pushing Mina’s buttons and mentally kicked themselves for doing so on their precious Minari.

It was the next day and all the teasing Sana and Momo made coupled with the intruding thoughts on how she managed to let Nayeon do this for 5 months straight confuses her. And so, when she woke up this morning, she told herself that she would put an end to this whole lunch box fiasco that’s been going on for far too long.

She got dressed and ready to go to work. And now the she is walking towards her office, Mina didn’t know why she burdened every step she made, dreaded how close she is her office. She doesn’t know why she felt uneasy, but she thought that maybe it’s because she won’t have her usual morning breakfast. Yeah, maybe that’s it.

She opened the door and there was the intern, waiting for her with the lunchbox neatly wrapped up in cloth.

Nayeon looked at her and smiled. But before she could hand her the lunchbox, Mina puts up a hand and motions her to sit by the chair near her desk. And so Nayeon obediently followed, not a word came out from both of their lips.

Once they were seated, Mina cuts straight to the point, “I want you to stop sending me these lunchboxes. I want you to not go in here early in the morning just so you could hand me these.”

Nayeon was dumbfounded at what Mina said. She didn’t like the lunchboxes?

“W-what’s wrong with them?” she asked, her voice low.

“As far as I can remember, your job here is to work for me, yes? Your job requires you to be in your little office, doing whatever it is you have to do. Your job isn’t to be my personal chef and hand me these lunchboxes as if we’re close. It isn’t on your job description to cook for me and be earlier than me just to hand me these lunchboxes. Why are you doing this anyway?”

Nayeon doesn’t answer as her eyes are fixed on the floor. She couldn’t bring herself to look at the glare being sent her way by the CEO.

After moments of silence, Mina has realized that Nayeon isn’t going to talk, “That’s all I have to say Miss Im. You may go now. Starting tomorrow, I don’t want you here, understood?”

Nayeon just nodded, and turned her head away from the CEO to hide her tears. She stood up, and quickly made her way outside her office.

Mina followed her actions silently but when she left, she was confused as to why she didn’t feel relieved. She felt… heavy. She puts a hand on her chest as she felt a faint twinge of pain.

Am I sick? She thought confusedly.

She drank some water and ignored the pain in her chest as she goes back to work, resuming to her normal doings.

Finally, she is gone, she thought happily.

She is anything but happy.

She is distracted and disturbed, IN THE MIDDLE OF A COMPANY MEETING!

She has never felt like this before. She was never distracted when it comes to the matters of the company. But these past few days proved her wrong as she is anything but focused, relaxed and happy.

She felt uncomfortable! Like someone took a chunk of herself and is now missing.

Why is she feeling like this right now?!

“Miss Myoui?”

Mina whipped her head at the voice and saw that the board and the presenter, Jihyo, was looking directly at her. She raised her eyebrows in question and Jihyo asks, “What do you think about this month’s company performance?”

Mina felt nervous as she saw the board waiting for her answer. She didn’t listen to anything that Jihyo had said for the past hour of the meeting. And so, she straightened up herself and prepared to answer.

“I think it’s good. The numbers and statistics are looking fine and we should continue to be consistently great at our work if we want a rise in the charts and ratings.”

Everyone in the table sighed in relief and Jihyo congratulated everyone for a job well done, clapping her hands and soon, everyone applauded.

Now that the meeting is over and everybody left the room, Jihyo rushed up to Mina who is walking back to her office.

“Hey, what’s wrong? That’s not how you usually answer this month’s evaluation,” she whispered as she follows the CEO by her side.

Mina looks at her confused, “What do you mean this is not how I answer in our evaluation?”

“You’d always ask questions and recommend our next more or something. You always seem chatty and participative in these meetings but today, you look troubled.”

They didn’t notice that the both of them is close at the CEO’s office. Mina opened the door and sat on the sofa of her office where the intern usually sits and rubs her head in frustration of herself… and maybe a little for Jihyo for questioning her unwell self.

“I’m fine Jihyo. Besides, there is nothing wrong with the company’s performance. We are doing good and you know that.”

“Yeah I know that but this meeting, you are so not yourself. I think you should go home and a few days off. You are not feeling yourself these past few days. You’ve been working hard enough Mina.”

“I’m fine Jihyo. A good little nap and water then I’ll be good to work again. You may go back now.”

Jihyo wants to insist that she goes home and rest there but held herself back as she doesn’t want to add to the burden. And so, she leaves the office and goes to the two girls who probably know what happened to her.

But because of her rushing, she bumped into someone in the hallway, leaving the both of them on the floor and a bunch of papers scattered around.

“Oh no,” said the woman she bumped into, and starts to hurriedly get the papers.

“I’m so sorry, here let me help you,” Jihyo apologized and helps the woman pick up the papers.

Once the both of them are done cleaning up, they stood and Jihyo hands the woman the papers that is already neatly organized.

“Here you go,” she hands them the papers. The woman took it gratefully and flashed her her bunny smile before saying, “Thank you for helping me but I really need to hurry. Thank you so much for your help!” she bowed before quickly walking away from her.

Jihyo stared at her getting further and further away, feeling like she has seen her before.

Eh, must be an intern, she thought and continues her journey to her friends.

did not proofread this yet so there may be some mistakes!