Song: Poppin’ by BAEKHYUN

(March)

“Miss Han!” Jaehyun snapped his fingers as she had a blank expression once more.

The both occupied Jaehyun’s spacious workstation, him showing her his laptop.

“I’m sorry? What was that again?”

“Goodness. I was showing you how to extract the report for the weekly huddle. Sehun needs a copy of this before the meeting starts as it will set the tone of the session, particularly which area they need to focus on for the week.”

“Yes, got it.”

“Do you, really?” he munched on another piece of biscuit, his fourth one in thirty minutes. “I’m becoming nervous for you. It’s Monday and yet you look…dismal. Haven’t you had enough sleep during the weekend?”

She smiled tiredly. Yuna does babysitting jobs on weekends too, then the restaurant again in the evening.

She literally hasn’t had any rest for days.

“I overslept that’s why I’m like this,” she made an excuse.

“You didn’t buy new clothes over the weekend, am I correct?” he eyed her discretely.

“Ehm. My closet can still keep up, no need at this moment sir, hehe.”

“Do you have anything for lunch? I am going out with some Deli employees at the premium beef place nearby. Maybe you want to go and meet new people?” he offered.

Yuna chortled and remembered the expensive meals she’s had with Jaehyun. “For sure it costs a fortune. I’m gonna walk around later sir, I have an errand,” of course, she wanted to save money.

“Sure, if that’s what you want,” Jaehyun continued working, and silence filled the air. “By the way, I apologize if I’m blunt most of the time. I want you to perform well that’s why I’m like this,” he took another biscuit and shoved it in his mouth. He was clearly stress eating.

“Hey, no worries. I know you are only doing your job. I am actually glad that we can communicate comfortably like this.”

“So listen to everything I say and write down notes so you can go back to it in case you forget something. I want you to be good on all aspects here, Miss Han.”

“Got it.”

“Go back to your station and do what I did. Extract the report for the week, then print 2 copies. You know where the printer is; just right by the corner.”

“Consider that done, sir!”

“Sehun always scribbles so we need hard copies. It will be for the meeting which will start in a few. I would usually sit in and take the minutes. This meeting is important as Deli’s top investors attend as well—Blair Mckenzie and Willem Van den Berg. These are high profile people; the bigwigs.”

“I see. High…profile…attendees, extremely…important…meeting,” she underlined what she wrote in all caps.

“I’ll let you do the minutes next week. In the meantime, while I’m out with them at the conference hall, work on the task list I assigned to you. You have a lot, Yuna.”

“Sure. I am on it” she jotted down her notes.

“To be honest, I could have finished your task list in two hours. It’s already 10:30am.”

“I’ll move faster, sir!” she stood up to get Sehun’s printouts.

Jaehyun kept shaking his head, even biting his nails out of anxiousness when he saw her hopping giddily at the hallway.

Why isn’t she taking this seriously? he thought.

Yuna stopped on her tracks when she saw the person stepping out from one of the executives’ rooms. “Mr. Elevator! We see each other again!”

“Miss Han! How are you?” Baekhyun hid his ID underneath his sweater right away.

“I’m good. I’m learning a lot. Did you just finish cleaning the Chief Engineer’s office?”

“Yeah. It was ridiculously messy. That man is totally a monster,” he kept rubbing his nose with his thumb, then gripped his tablet that he hid on his back.

“The Chief Engineer? I heard that yeah, he is a monster,” she whispered when she said the last word.

“What? Who said that?” Baekhyun was defensive right away.

“Just the people I meet here and there. They said that he’s timid, avoids socialization and is super scary when mad. But what they said as well is he’s ridiculously smart; the smartest of this generation. No wonder he was able to build this company from scratch,” she gestured towards her surroundings. “Totally admirable.”

“It’s kind of accurate,” he rested his fingers on his chin and nodded.

“Where are you off to next?” Yuna asked.

“Ehm, clean the other rooms. They have a meeting so it’s my time to get in and do my job.”

“Oh, right. Perfect timing. You’re so efficient, Mr. Elevator.”

“Well…what can I say?” he bragged pointlessly.

“What are you doing after that?” she asked.

“Have a quick lunch. Why?”

Yuna proposed. “You mind having lunch with me? To be honest, the food at the cafeteria, while it’s good, is hella expensive. I want to know the cheap places where I can grab a bite. And I’m sick and tired of convenience store food.”

“Ehm, well, did you ask Jaehyun, I mean Mr. Jeong about this?”

“I’ve been attempting to ask the people surrounding me but they’re not after cheaper alternatives. Maybe you can help me? I’m sure you’ve roamed around the area.”

Baekhyun scratched his head because he only eats Dara’s packed food, from the cafeteria, or somewhere expensive.

Yuna noticed him being uneasy. “But if you have something, of course you can decline my invite.”

“No, no. I can…I can accompany you around the area. I’ll see you at the ground floor lobby later.”

She then heard her name being called from afar. “Miss Han, what’s taking you so long? I need the printouts!” it was Jaehyun, shouting from his desk on the corner, eyes on his laptop still.

“Yes sunbaenim!”

They bowed at each other and Baekhyun walked fast to exit the area, leaving the puzzled Jaehyun.

“Sorry I took long,” Yuna said while handling over the pieces of paper.

“I thought the printer ate you already.”

“No I was just…chatting with someone…”

“Who? You imagining things?” Jaehyun tiptoed and looked at the empty hallway.

He stood up when Sehun went out his office, the CEO turning his cap backwards.

“We’ll go now. Guard the fort,” Jaehyun said.

“Fighting, sir!” she encouraged both men.

---------------------------------------------

Yuna opened her eyes when her head snapped as she was starting to doze off on her workstation.

She was the only one at the hallway, alone on the floor, as everyone’s busy with their day to day.

All the bosses had their own rooms while the assistants’ workstations are decently spaced from each other.

“Oh…” she took her buzzing phone.

“Han Yuna!” it was Jaehyun, hissing. “The report you printed does not include weekend data. Print a new batch. It has to be included!”

“It’s not? But I checked…” Yuna felt nervous right away. She scrambled to view the report on her laptop.

“How do you define a week? A week is Sunday to Saturday, right? You only extracted Monday to Friday!”

“Uh, yes! I’m extracting the updated report now!”

“Palli! I’m at the 5th floor conference hall, the biggest one!”

Yuna felt her jittery hands when she knocked at the only conference room at the floor. She was sure Jaehyun will go berserk on her later.

Jaehyun kept hissing when she entered the room. He stood up and snatched the printouts from her, checking it right away.

“Sorryyyy…” she mouthed.

Baekhyun scrambled to get his tablet and cover his face with it. He slid down the chair, looking extremely lazy.

Of course, nobody called the eccentric man out.

“Annyeong. Annyeong,” Yuna bowed into nothingness while greeting the executives and Sehun. She only looked at the floor, feeling embarrassed of another oo.

“Miss Han, now that you’re here and the team is complete, I want to introduce you formally to my one downs and our valued consultants. Some are working from home and overseas so you’ll meet them digitally,” Sehun said while Jaehyun tapped his keyboard loudly, obviously agitated.

Sehun introduced her to the rest. “I think you haven’t met Mrs. Blair Mckenzie yet.“

Yuna exchanged pleasantries with the woman on the screen. “Annyeonghaseyo, ma’am…ohayo gozaimasu…bonne journee.”

Some cackled hearing her greet the fiery woman in different languages.

“This is our founder and Chief Engineer, Byun Baekhyun. He is the most important person here in Deli.”

The man, who was almost lying down, swivelled his ch