To say that she was embarrassed was an understatement. Who wouldn’t after being seen by the person you’re supposed to be spying on in an interesting position all the while being in the same shop in a big mall? Mina knew she has no way to escape this unless the ground swallows her whole or try with all her might to evaporate in that very moment but unfortunately, the universe, or the science in this matter, doesn’t work that way. The only way for her to get through with this is to face her best friend with the person who she scolded with her.

Mina took a big gulp before straightening her back and slowly facing the two. Jihyo has a slight smirk to her face, amusement in her eyes while Nayeon has her brows up in confusion, head tilted to the side. Mine briefly looked at her before focusing on Jihyo, “I thought I dropped something on the floor and I couldn’t find it,” she lied, laughing nervously, feeling herself sweat a little under Jihyo’s scrutinizing gaze, “Must be someone else’s stuff. I thought it was mine, haha. Well nice meeting the both of yout but I better head out now. Bye!” she hurriedly parted the pair, bumping against Nayeon before speeding towards the exit, walking as fast and as far away as possible before leaning against a wall and sighed out loudly.

She knows that Jihyo won’t stop just there. Knowing that she has to face her tomorrow at work means another chance for Jihyo to ask her again about what is she doing there. Mina messes up her hair in frustration. Never in her life did she do such a thing, spying on people. What was she thinking?

No but seriously, what made her get up and spy on the two?

It was the next day, and Mina feels like all the energy she has in her body has been drained empty. Despite her 8 hours of sleep, she still feels tired, maybe even dread of the possible interrogation by Jihyo later at work. As much as she feels like sleeping is the best thing to do at 5 am, she drags her lifeless body to shower, dress up and prepare her first meal of the day. Mina knew this day in a different level because the coldness of the shower didn’t wake up her senses or the meal she ate didn’t energize her, instead felt like rocks weighing down her body, steps heavy with lethargy as she walks towards her car.

I’m gonna need a serious expresso shot later, Mina thinks as she rubs her eyes frustratingly… and tiredly.

She arrived at the building, employees left and right bowing to her. She walked towards the elevator and presses the button, waiting for the doors to open. Even in the building, she still feels tired, her eyes on the verge of closing themselves. As much as Mina tries to fight it, it seems like her eyelids are putting up a fight.

The sound of the elevator woke her up, signaling the elevator doors opening. She walked inside and leaned her head against the metal wall of the elevator. Doors were closing and Mina thought this may be a good time to take a little nap knowing her office is at the highest floor. She was ready to give in to her sleepiness, the gap between the door getting smaller by the second. Finally, she thought, I can take a little nap for myself.

DING!

Her eyes shot wide open, her body in full alert as she looked at her surroundings. Small space, metal walls, buttons labeled with numbers, a screen that blares a red number, doors open to a familiar looking office, yeah she’s inside the elevator.

“Miss?”

Mina screamed at the voice, looking everywhere until her eyes landed on a body. A body… A human? Why does she look familiar?

“Miss are you ok?” the voice asked.

Mina rubbed her eyes and blinked a couple of time before her vision slowly gets clearer. Oh no…

“Are you ok?” the intern, Nayeon, asked. She gets closer to the CEO, her eyes filled with concern.

Mina felt something warm on her side and saw that Nayeon’s hand was on her arm, a gentle grasp at her. Mina looked back at Nayeon’s concerned filled eyes before nodding hesitantly at her, looking away and fixing herself quickly before getting out of the elevator and hurriedly went to her office.

She opened the door and threw her bag carelessly to the sofa in her office, getting behind her desk before slumping against her chair. Arms over her eyes, she can’t believe she saw that intern again. Since when was she in the elevator? Was she staring at her the whole time she was sleeping taking a nap in there? Oh my god that was embarrassing. Did she take photos of me? What if she shows it to other people? What if she uses that photo to blackmail me? Is she gonna plan a revenge on me?

Mina places her hands on the desk, trying to ground herself from all the whirlwind of questions wrecking her brain. She tries to clear her head, eyes closed and evens out her breathing to calm herself.

But wait a minute.

Why was she with me when her floor is completely different from mine?

Jihyo’s laughing, the sound echoing the walls to her office. I hate her laugh, Mina thinks frustratingly, fingers soothing the pain in her head.

“What do you mean she- she’s plotting against you?” Jihyo said in between laughs, almost falling off of her chair. She’s been at it for like five minutes ever since she told Jihyo about what happened in the elevator earlier.

I wanna push her off of the chair, Mina thought as she impatiently tries to wait for Jihyo’s laugh to subside, her feet tapping rapidly against the floor.

After another five minutes of waiting for her to cool down, Jihyo wiped her tears and tried to be serious.

“So, let me get this straight,” Jihyo started, “You think that intern took photos of you sleeping in the elevator just because you woke up and saw her with you on your floor? And she’s going to use those photos against you as karma to what you’ve done to her?”

“Yes!” Mina exclaimed, “That’s the only reason why she was there with me, to plot against me and get her revenge!”

Jihyo pursed her lips in an attempt to not laugh to understand Mina’s reasons, “Well have you ever thought she was there with you to like… I don’t know guard you or something? Or perhaps wake you up from your little nap? Seems like you’ve enjoyed your sleep in the elevator,” she smirked.

Mina wiped for any drool she may have not noticed. Thank God, there’s none, and scoffed, “Why would she do that?”

“Exactly what did she do to make you think she would ever do that to you?”

Mina opened , but couldn’t find the words, nor the reason, as to why she would do that. Well, she did reject her, and the intern may have felt so hurt by that that maybe she would plan a revenge against her. But then again, this is just a theory, or in this case…

“You do know you are throwing a serious accusation to an intern right?” Jihyo said, noticing Mina has gone silent, “You don’t even know these people that well yet. If you are so paranoid, why don’t you observe them at work?”

Mina furrowed her brows at this, “Observe them? At work? You mean go see them working?” and that just sparked a light bulb on her head.

“I mean yeah sure, if you’re not busy you can do that-“

“Out,” Mina said, cutting off Jihyo.

“What?” she asked, confused.

“I said out. I need to work,” Mina stood up  from her chair, and walked towards where Jihyo is sitting. She grabbed her up and pushed her to towards the door.

“Hey, HEY! What do you think you’re-“ Mina pushed her out of her office and slammed the door shut, Jihyo standing there in shock. She’s never done this before, this is quite interesting. She looked back at the door and stared into space.

I need to talk about this to the girls, she thought and walked her way to the elevator.

Once she was in and the doors are shut, the elevator going down to her floor, she suddenly thought, , I didn’t ask her about the mall thing, she face-slapped herself multiple times, frustrated at herself for letting that slide.

If you’re gonna ask Mina what she’s doing in the office cafeteria at 12 in the afternoon, of course she is not spying on someone, rather trying to see if the food being sold here is to her liking.

The reason she pushed Jihyo out of her office is because she is planning to spy on the intern (boom, I lied. HA! Bet you didn’t see that coming?) but she has to make it seem like she’s just… casual. She doesn’t want to raise eyebrows for appearing so spontaneously, and she doesn’t want to draw attention to her because that would make her suspicious. So, she disguised herself in a way that no one would recognize her. She wore sunglasses (that’s what a professional spy would do).

She has never been to the cafeteria given that she doesn’t eat here. Usually, it would be outside with the girls at a restaurant they dragged her into, or in her office with the lunchbox… from the intern.

She entered the vicinity, the sound of chatter, sizzles and metal clanking greeted her. There were different stalls selling different kinds of foods that the employees will enjoy while on their breaktime. Seeing the menu from one of the stalls makes water but that will have to wait, for she is trying to find one person in this mass of people eating.

It took her a while to find her, but she was there, by the window at the corner of the cafeteria, eating… alone. The sight looked sad for Mina. But that’s the power of sunglasses, no one can see through her. Genius, right?

And so, the mission begins. Mina orders food from one of the stalls, takes her food after minutes of waiting while making sure that the intern was still there, and headed towards the tables that were not too close but not too far either, just enough to see what she’s doing and to eavesdrop on her.

So far, she hasn’t said or done a single thing other than eating. Mina has been playing with her food, growing frustrated as to why the intern ain’t doing anything. The steam from the food is fogging up her sunglasses, causing her to wipe it without having to take them off of her face. If the intern isn’t going to do much, then she will eat her food for the meantime.

She takes a look at her tray; she sees that the food on it was all mixed and messed up from her playing it. She took her fork and scooped a small portion of the food and put’s it inside .

Oh.My.God. Why didn’t anyone tell her the food is good in here? This is gatekeeping good food. She shovels the food in , groaning at how the flavors makes her tastebuds go wild in joy. She didn’t care what’s happening around her anymore, the food on her tray distracting her from her mission, spy on the intern.

She ate everything up and left no crumbs. Leaning back on her chair and rubbing her tummy in satisfaction. That was a good meal, she thought happily. She looked around to see some of the people leaving the cafeteria, saw the clock saying that it’s five minutes till breaktime is over. People are leaving. Breaktime is over.

People are leaving…

PEOPLE ARE LEAVING?!

Mina looked at where the intern should be seating and lo and behold, she isn’t there anymore. She frantically looked for her and saw her go through the exit, leaving the cafeteria. She hurriedly cleans up, wipes her face and Usain Bolt’s her way out of the cafeteria to catch up on the intern.

Curse that delicious meal and whoever made them.

A normal person would run after the person their supposed to catch up on. But Mina is not normal, she is a freaking CEO! So, if she were to run in the hallway full of employees who will witness her frantically running to the person she wants to talks to, then that would be embarrassing… and would break her intimidating persona she carefully tried to preserve for years ever since she entered this building. And so, she settles for something far cooler than running.

Power walking… with style.

It was doing well. She still exudes intimidation to her employees while trying to catch up on her except power walking isn’t really efficient on this situation because…

Why is she walking so fast? Mina thought frustratingly and tries to walk faster to catch up on her. She saw the intern turn a corner and Mina takes this opportunity to look around a bit to see that there were less people in the hallway and starts running to her.

But before she could even turn, Mina was taken by surprise when a bunch of hands grabbed her and slams her body against the wall.

“Why are you following me?!” a shout. The intern shouts?

Mina didn’t notice that she had her eyes closed, a natural instinct at the impact on her back. She opened her eyes and saw the hands holding her blazer so tight it would crumple the fabric. Her eyes trailed further until it lands on the intern’s face, her eyes closed tight, mouth parted and face red.

Normally, she would push the person and ask them who they think they are for acting so rough with her. But for some reason, she can’t bring herself to do that to the intern… who still has her eyes closed, probably preparing for whatever she may throw at her.

She coughed to get her attention and when she finally opened her eyes and locked eyes with her, all the color on her face, gone.

Mina smirked at her reaction. Feeling a little bold, she leaned forward, her face inches away from hers and said, “Are we gonna make out now or what?”