#01
m e e t   j e s s i c a   j u n g

A loud sigh escaped Jessica's lips as she dragged her feet across the dim-lit hallway. It was late at night, and she has just came home from her office in the publishing building. She finally reached her door at the end of the hallway, entering a sequence of numbers to a small machine, and after two beeping sounds, she turned the doorknob to her apartment. As soon as she entered, Jessica took off her coat and threw it with her tote bag to the sofa in the living room. Glancing at the pile of envelopes on top of the coffee table, she ignored it and made her way towards the inside of her home.

It was tiring, honestly. Only getting home a few hours before going to work again. Jessica was tired of it also, but she just couldn't help working hard. It wasn't about the money, though; she has mounts in her bank account untouched. It was probably the only thing that got other things off her mind for a moment. And an excuse for her to not answer those piling letters, also.

Reaching for the TV remote next to the LCD screen, she the TV and switched to a channel with drama on. Jessica doesn't really watch them, she only needs sounds so it won't feel so quiet. She went to her room for a brief shower and a change of clothes to more comfortable ones; a white shirt and boy-shorts and a long cardigan. Before settling down in front of the TV with a cup of hot tea she had brewed earlier, she went to the living room to grab her bag.

Her phone's LED light blinked; she had received six emails, two text messages and a missed-call. Before going through the other messages, she decided to call back her friend and assistant, Tiffany.

"Just wanted to ask what time did you get home today," she said when Jessica asked. "Don't tell me you work overtime again, please?"

"Well, then, I didn't work overtime."

Jessica could hear Tiffany sigh across the line. "Until when are you going to do this, Sica?"

"Until I get a raise, a promotion? I don't know," Jessica shrugged. It was a stupid answer, she thought, she's already in the highest position in her department.

Tiffany sighed again. "Just.. don't overwork yourself, okay?" she said softly. "Now, please, get some sleep. I'll see you tomorrow at the office. Bye."

After a short hum in response to her friend's goodbye, Jessica hung up. Tiffany had known her since a long time ago, and she surely knew why she was being like this, and she thought she also knew that it's hard for Jessica to stop this habit of hers – it will probably never change, actually.

Her messages were from an editor reminding her about deadlines, and a work-mate asking if she wants to go out after work, and being Jessica, either she doesn't answer them or turn them down nicely. Jessica doesn't like people. They give her headaches. Unfortunately, working as a lifestyle magazine art director caused her to meet a lot of different people and give her way severe headaches than normal. But it doesn't matter, as long as she knows how to deal with them.

Three of her emails were a bunch of photos from photographers, and she decided she'll download the attachments on her laptop later, then checked her other emails. One was a spam, and the other one, was from an unsaved address, [email protected]. The subject was Hey, and a short preview of the first sentences were unimportant greetings and courtesies that Jessica didn't even bother to open it and quickly deleted it. It was the same thing for the letters too. She didn't need it.

She didn't need anymore apologies.

After that, Jessica was busy saving important emails and checking out news in a website, then charged her phone. The thought of what happened throughout the day passed her mind quickly, and after she finished her tea, she fell asleep with the TV sounds surrounding her.

Lucky her, she woke up early at seven, three hours before she was needed in her desk. Deciding to work on a few layouts before she showered, she her laptop on her desk and made a small breakfast while waiting for it to activate completely. Nibbling on her toast, she sat in front of her laptop. She finally downloaded all those photo attachments and saved them on her work folder, before editing some of them on Photoshop. It was her usual work, she does that almost everyday.

An hour she spent in front of her laptop, then she showered and changed to an outfit suitable for work; a baby-blue blouse tucked inside a black skinny-jeans. Her make-up was just natural, and her hair was tied up into a neat bun, lightly curled tendrils hanging around her face. After packing up her personal necessities, her laptop and documents for work, she left her apartment and hailed a taxi to her office.

L magazine's building was as busy as usual, with people roaming around every floor of the building and annoying sounds erupting from every mouths; either it was gossiping, talking about work or just plain chit-chatting. Jessica wasn't fond of all of them anyway. Throwing small smiles and light bows towards every people she passed by, and she finally reached her office in the art department in the twelfth floor. In front of her office door, Tiffany was already busy with her computer.

"Hey," Jessica greeted her.

Tiffany looked up from her computer and saw her boss waving a small hello as she walked by. "Oh, hi," she smiled. "Did you have a good sleep last night?"

"It was quite relaxing," Jessica stopped in front of her office door to turn around, "But you really sound like my mom if you ask me that everyday."

By an intercom, Jessica ordered a cup of hot cappuccino, and after that she started her work. Piling documents were delivered to her desk even before she came, so Jessica decided to work on them first. Most of them was layouts she needed to confirm or edit, so she grabbed her red marker and started drawing and writing notes. Being the detailed art director, she finished those quickly and finally got the chance to continue her own work.

Jessica hooked up her laptop to the big screen (she finds it nice to see her work displayed in a bigger monitor than the one she's working on), and began working on editing the pictures on her folder.

A digitized voice came out through the intercom, "Sica, your coffee's here. And, uh, there's somebody who'd like to meet you."

"I'd like my coffee now, thanks. And who's at the door?" Jessica asked back.

"It's Jinki. Should I let him in?"

The name mentioned by Tiffany was more than familiar. She looked up at the tinted-glass door, and she saw the head of the person mentioned, standing in front of her assistant's desk. With a sigh, Jessica said, "Send him in."

Seconds later, there was two rapid knocks at her door and Tiffany entered the room with a cup of coffee in her hand, and a smily man tailing behind her. After putting the coffee on Jessica's desk, she patted her shoulder and left the room, Jinki and Jessica alone.

Jessica glanced up at the tall man in a white shirt in front of her. He was smiling–an annoying smile, Jessica thought. But nonetheless, she asked, "Can I help you with anything?"

"No, thanks," Jinki shook his head. "I'm just here to deliver the photos for the fashion editorial, you wanna see?"

Lee Jinki – or Jinki, so people often call him – was the head of photographers in art department. He was one of them –the photographers, and a really good one too – and his job is (obviously) taking pictures as documentaries for the magazine, and directing every photo shoot. As far as Jessica knows, other than working in the magazine, he works as a freelance photographer and owns a photography blog. His personality is kind of the happy-go-lucky type; the annoyingly cheerful and live-as-if-the-world-ends-tomorrow kind of person. One of the many types of people Jessica dislike. It just bothers her.

"I'll look at them later," she replied to the previous question as she took the folder from Jinki's hands. "Why didn't you drop them off at Tiffany's desk? She can deliver it to me."

"Nah, I wouldn't want to bother her," Jinki shrugged.

"So you chose to bother me instead," Jessica muttered as she put the folder on the holder.

Jinki laughed. "Don't be like that, Jess. I'm sorry," he said. "I have one more thing to say, though. I've already chosen the best pictures for that folder, thought it would lessen your work a little. If you think it isn't too suitable for your layout, I'll send you the others, just tell me."

"Okay, thanks," Jessica gave him a little smile.

"I'll take my leave then," Jinki returned the smile brighter and head for the door, finally leaving Jessica alone, sighing to herself.

After taking a sip of her coffee – her now-not-too-hot coffee, thanks to Jinki – she continued doing work. Her actual job was only to make concepts, and approve or disapprove what her employees had done; making layouts, designing fonts and arranging letters and such, but she ends up editing them herself, then tell the makers after. Other departments don't know because Jessica always told them to put their names on their works with a reason, "I only edited it."

At that, people say Jessica is a workaholic twenty two year old ice princess (which is a more sugarcoated version of 'frigid ') with no life outside her job. Jessica didn't really care, though. She even thought some part of those rumors might be true. Tiffany had talked to her about those things, but her only response was, "At least I know the truth, right?" and Tiffany just surrendered that way.

Doing other people's job wasn't out of fun, and not out of interest either. Jessica just wants the job done quickly so she'll have a few days with no work until the magazine's released, and they have to prepare for the new edition. And usually, Jessica had already made the layouts for the next issue on her days off.

It's just the way Jessica is. Meticulous, withdrawn and hard-working. And she liked it that way.

© hellopsr stories, 2012

Hey there, everyone. It's me, and this is my first chapter of Happiness. In here is showed a bit of Jessica's daily life – home and at work, how she deals with other people, what she does, and who she is. I like Jessica in this story, because she comes off as powerful, but.. who knows? First chapters will only be introduction, so they'll be boring, but I cope you can cope with it, because the next chapters will be (hopefully) exciting!