"You can't reject this manuscript!"

      Leaning back in his seat, hands folded neatly behind head and feet propped up on his desk, Himchan found himself experiencing an overwhelming feeling of deja vu. The setting had changed considerably in the three years since this scenario first played out, but the people remained exactly the same. In corner one, there was the Commissioning Editor of Nalgae Publishing Company, Mr. Jang Jung Su. He was slumped in the only chair- besides Himchan's- in the room, his face contorted into a deep scowl. In corner two, Seulki- whose constant pacing wouldn't have allowed her to sit even if there were more available chairs- was keeping double time as she strode from one end of Himchan's office to the next. Her eyes were constantly darting back and forth as she alternated between glowering at Himchan and glowering at Jung Su; towards the former, her expression would subtly change until Himchan was convinced she was being possessed by a demon, though it softened whenever she turned to face the latter. Apparently it was okay to offend and indirectly threaten her boss if she became annoyed with him for not backing her up, but a coworker with considerably less power must be appeased despite Seulki being absolutely fed up with his stubbornness.

     "I see how it is," Himchan thought, shifting in his seat to get more comfortable. As the muscles in her face rippled once again beneath her flawless skin, changing her expression to the devil's incarnate as she rounded on him, Himchan wondered just how sore her face would be after all this exercise.

     "It's my job to reject manuscripts, so I most certainly can reject them," Jung Su retorted, watching Seulki complete her eleventh lap around the Senior Editor's office. He, too, was recalling a time when he had faced an unfortunately similar situation to this one- if he remembered correctly, Himchan had tried convincing the company to get him a new rug afterwards, claiming that Seulki had run a rut in his old one. Naturally, the request was denied, and Himchan was left sulking for several days because he hated the color of his office's rug.

     "You're throwing away such a good one, though!" The two men in the room exchanged a surprise glance after they both detected the hint of a whine in Seulki's voice. It was rare for her to let something like that slip.

     "How cute," Himchan thought, turning his face so Seulki would remain unaware of the growing smile on his face.

     "How unprofessional." Jung Su risked a quick eye roll while Seulki's back was turned to him. Suddenly, he was aware of the gap between his age and Seulki's, and it was not putting him in any better of a mood. "A manuscript has to be more than good to make it, though. We can only publish so many books," he reasoned, despite feeling as though he were attempting to explain the concept to a brick wall.

     "This one has so much potential, though! It could really be something great if polished enough!" As she grew more frustrated, Seulki's hands began following the example of her feet and waving boisterously through the air, presumably to increase the strength of her argument. Jung Su wished that she would sit down and discuss this rationally, like the adults they all were. Himchan took notice of the fact that Seulki had recently had her nails manicured, and made a quick mental note to compliment her on it later.

     "Lots of the manuscripts I see 'have potential', Ms. Lee. The problem is that they need to have already reached that potential by the time they arrive on my desk." Before the words had even finished leaving his mouth, Seulki was passionately countering his argument.

     "Then why do I come to work every day? The whole point of being an editor is to help writers achieve their potential; if we expect them to be perfect from the start, we would be neglecting that duty! Not to mention we would never be able to publish any books!"

     The room went quiet as both sides realized that they had nothing further to say, because any new arguments would be superfluous and useless in changing the other's mind; they had reached an impasse, and as the appointed mediator and referee for the argument, Himchan felt that now was the time for him to step in and bring to an end the surprisingly amusing conflict. Clearing his throat to draw the attention onto him, Himchan straightened in his seat and smiled at both Seulki and Jang Su. Neither returned the expression, and their cool, expectant, mildly-annoyed gazes quickly squelched Himchan's. Reverting to a barely contained seriousness, Himchan leaned forward and opened his mouth to speak.

     "Naturally you agree that we should not-"

     "You know that it would be a waste to-"

     Before he would even take a breath, the two had exploded and gone back to arguing- except this time, they were directing their ire towards him instead of one another. Determined to outdo the other by making their opinion heard first, the pair's volume rapidly escalated to the point where Himchan was certain they would bring down the entire building. Groaning, he covered his face with his hands. Arguments like these were much more entertaining when you were a bystander and not the one everyone was yelling at.

     Still shouting, the two slowly began inching closer to his desk, as though getting within a closer proximity would make him more inclined to side with them.

     "Himchan-"

     "Mr. Kim-"

     "Excuse me!" Himchan snapped, dropping his hands so that they slapped against his desk. "I believe that I was trying to speak!" All traces of amusement gone from his voice, Himchan brought order to the chaos within a heartbeat- and both Seulki's and Jang Su's hearts were certainly pounding. After a moment's surprised hesitation, the both of them scurried back to their original positions, and even Seulki was standing with her hands respectfully folded behind her back. She rarely, if ever, showed that amount of consideration towards Himchan's rank. After all, it was easy to forget that Himchan was their boss when he was so friendly and behaved the way he did; it was equally easy, though, to be reminded of the established hierarchy in the company.

     Having successfully scolded the two, Himchan returned to his former casual demeanor; both Seulki and Jang Su remained respectfully stiff, however. "I understand that you both feel strongly about this, but my office is too small to host the shouting Olympics," he chuckled, gesturing to the enclosure in question. Jang Su laughed weakly; Seulki remained decidedly quiet. Sighing quietly to himself, Himchan hoped that he hadn't offended her- or, if he had, that a well-thought compliment about her nails would be enough to appease her.

     "I apologize for losing awareness of my surroundings, sir," Mr. Jang annunciated, bowing to Himchan. Glancing over at his behavior from the corner of her eye, Seulki pursed her lips. She was obviously considering whether or not she, too, would be expected to extend such a formal apology. Seeking the answer, she turned to look at Himchan and raised her eyebrows. Smirking playfully, he waved subtly for her to apologize.

     Rolling her eyes and grimacing, Seulki bowed a full ninety degrees. "Sorry for yelling," she muttered, peeking through her eyelashes to see Himchan's reaction. Unable to contain himself, he had a large grin on his face and was shaking in silent laughter. Heaving out a long, annoyed sigh, Seulki straightened up and folded her arms irritably over her chest.

     "Thank you," Himchan managed to squeeze out, forcing his face to go back to being serious. The corners of his mouth kept twitching, though. "Considering Ms. Lee has proven to have a good eye for potential in the past, I would suggest that we go out on a limb with this one. I'm not busy at the moment, so if you'd like I can take over the manuscript," he offered, smiling pleasantly at Jang Su and disregarding the decidedly sour expression on the older man's face.

     "If in my next life I ever have the opportunity to work with a pair of love birds again, I'm going to make sure I remember this incident and run for my life," Jang Su thought, forcing himself to not look Seulki's way. He just knew that she would have the most triumphant look on her face. "No wonder she wanted to take the matter up with Himchan; unless she wants to murder someone, he's always going to take her side."

     After the manuscript, which Jang Su had brought with him as 'evidence' against Seulki, was paper clipped together and left on Himchan's desk, Jang Su left the room. Seulki, however, remained behind. Smiling at Himchan, she decided to let her previous annoyances with him go, and perched herself on the corner of his desk. Following suit, Himchan abandoned his chair and sat opposite Seulki.

     She was bound to thank him for supporting her, despite knowing that it would give him extra work and draw the ire of one of the Hall of Editor's most important pillars. Although he hadn't read the manuscript himself, Himchan knew that he could trust Seulki. After all, it was her that had discovered one of their top-selling authors; he just hoped that this new guy wasn't going to be Hei-Ryung's clone. The last thing the company needed was another eclectic author prancing around causing trouble, and if one more such person were to infiltrate Nalgae they might be the catalyst that pushed the shareholders enough over the edge for them to rationalize putting a bounty on Himchan and Seulki's heads. Shuddering, Himchan sent a silent prayer up to any gods that might be listening, and then forgot the matter entirely. He was too interested in hearing how Seulki, who had been sitting thoughtfully this entire time, was going to thank him for his help.

     "He wants something," Seulki thought, noticing the way Himchan was looking at her; like a puppy, or a kid expecting a piece of candy. Pretending she hadn't seen him, Seulki shifted slightly so that her back was to Himchan and tried to come up with something to say before he began pouting. Finally, she decided on the safest response to his silent inquiring. "I'm glad to see that you have good taste for once, Himchan." His computer monitor was angled in just the right way that Seulki could catch Himchan's reflected face- he looked absolutely deflated. Sighing, Seulki turned to face him: "Do you want me to take the manuscript? I know you're probably too busy for this sort of thing."

     At least she felt a little guilty about using her good looks to manipulate him. Feeling vindicated, Himchan brightened considerably and slid a little closer to Seulki. Simultaneously, she scooted back and ended up returning to her previous pacing. Groaning, Himchan watched Seulki for a few seconds before inquiring into why she still seemed so agitated.

     "I think I might have really messed up," Seulki admitted, sounding slightly devastated as she paused walking long enough to look pitifully at Himchan.

     "Don't worry about it, I've got plenty of time on my hands. I'll get this thing done-"

     "Not about the manuscript!" Seulki hastily corrected, waving her hands in front of her face.

     "Of course not," Himchan agreed, nodding his head as he wondered why it ever crossed his mind that Seulki would continue to be concerned about him after already addressing the issue. "So then what is worrying you?"

     "During Hei-Ryung's interview, she was asked some really sensitive questions. I should have said something to bring an end to them, but I felt like a child every time I opened my mouth- and because of my selfishness, Hei-Ryung ended up saying some things that could really hurt her image. Not to mention it hurt her." The look on Seulki's face sent bullets through Himchan's heart, and he instantly sobered up to match the mood she was in. Collapsing into the now vacant extra seat, Seulki clasped her hands in her lap and drooped her shoulders. It was like all the energy she had previously been oozing had vanished in the blink of an eye. "I should have said something," she repeated, doubling over so that she could stare dismally at the floor.

     Sighing, Himchan slid off his desk and moved over to stand behind the chair. "I recently heard through the grape vine-" the both of them understood that this meant Ms. Baek, who was an entire vineyard all on her own- "that the controversial concluding question is to be omitted from the published interview, as requested by Ms. Kang's representative company." He reached down and rested one hand on Seulki's shoulder, felt her stiffen under his touch but then slowly relax. "Although that doesn't do much for Hei-Ryung's hurt feelings, it will at least prevent her from losing her job when people stop buying her books," he assured Seulki, gently patting her shoulder.

     "Do you think her answer was really that bad?"

     "No idea- I haven't seen it," Himchan chuckled, noticing that Seulki was returning to her old self- unfortunately, that meant she was back in her perpetual state of a careful balance between annoyance and tolerance. "Still better than having her upset," he thought, dancing out of Seulki's reach as she lazily swiped at him. "Here I go out of my way to comfort you, and you're going to beat me?" He demanded playfully. All this talk of Hei-Ryung had reminded him of something he had meant to bring up earlier- several days earlier, in fact. Walking over to the filing cabinet that sat behind his desk, Himchan pulled the top drawer open and began rifling through it.

     "As if anything I could do would hurt you. Haven't you seen your body lately? It's like a rock!" Himchan knew that she was just flattering him, but that didn't stop him from reveling in the fact that she was admiring him- or, at least pretending to.

     He didn't let it show as he turned to face her, a notebook in his hand, though. "My heart- it hurts my heart," he pouted, trying to keep the fact that her flattering had worked on him hidden as he patted his chest with his free hand. "And when did you recently see my body, anyway? I don't recall having ever disrobed myself in your presence," he added, waiting for Seulki to notice the notebook. For once, he was going to be able to gloat that she had lost something.

     "You have clothes that fit you nicely, so it's not any stretch of the imagination to picture what you look like out of... them..." Seulki let her voice die out as Himchan's eyebrows grew increasingly closer to his hair line. Blushing, Seulki looked away and let out a loud huff. "You know what I mean, Himchan!"

     Chuckling, he nodded his head amiably and leaned against his desk. "I do- you were quite specific. Tell me, do you imagine me without my clothes on frequently? And, how much of my clothing are talking about here?" Grinning childishly, Himchan had to lunge across the space between him and Seulki to keep her from storming out of the office. "I'm kidding, Seulki!" He exclaimed, latching onto her wrist and firmly holding her in place.

     "And to think I actually took you seriously for a minute, there," Seulki thought aloud, removing Himchan's hand from her wrist so she could rest her hands on her hips when she turned to face him. Shaking her head in only partially honest disappointment, her eyes 'happened' to catch the notebook Himchan was holding- more like waving in a painfully non-casual way, obviously trying to catch her attention.

     "I don't know what you were thinking, either," Himchan laughed, passing the notebook to Seulki when she gestured for it. "It must have gotten mixed in with that last batch of manuscripts you brought by," he explained, watching as Seulki flipped casually through the notebook. The writing wasn't hers- Himchan had gone through it earlier- which had confused him, since the first half was jam-packed with old school notes. It wasn't until he reached the second half that he realized why Seulki was holding onto a school notebook that didn't belong to her- the writing belonged to Hei-Ryung, and in that notebook was the beginning of her first published book. Despite never having read one of her books from cover to cover- Himchan wasn't one for sappy romance novels- he was able to instantly recognize her writing style, and the general plot of the book.

     Waiting expectantly for Seulki's response, Himchan returned to his desk and settled on the edge of his desk, knocking a few pencils onto the floor. Neither noticed, however.

     "Thanks for hanging onto it," Seulki mumbled, a small smile appearing on her face.

     "It's Hei-Ryung's, right? Any particular reason you're holding on to it for her?" Himchan questioned, knowing that he was prying but still insufferably curious about why Seulki would hang onto something like that. Perhaps the first official draft of the book, or the first printed copy- or as close to it as she could get- would be understandable, but a dusty school note book that didn't even contain the full story was a strange memento to keep around one's office. Plus, considering it had been caught up in the manuscripts on her desk, she apparently took it out once in a while to look through. "All this speculating is just making me even more curious!" Squirming a little, Himchan tried to judge whether he should continue pressing for details or if Seulki intended to answer him.

     It ended up being the latter. "I don't think she even knows I still have this," Seulki admitted, walking over to sit beside Himchan on the desk. So as not to bring about her ire and cause her to leave before she had even started the story, Himchan gave his Assistant Editor plenty of room and made no attempts to . A wise move on his part, because Seulki had already been preparing to snap at him. When there was no cause to do so, though, she quickly mellowed out and focused on the notebook she held. "This notebook was the reason I even found Hei-Ryung. Without it, I don't know what either of us would be doing right now."

     "Well, you would probably be much less stressed- sorry. I'll be quiet," pressing his lips together and placing his index finger over them, Himchan quieted himself down before Seulki had the chance to say anything. The look on her face was enough to make anything go quiet.

     "She's always been somewhat careless, but back then she was especially bad, I suppose. Although she later told me that this was her most important possession, she forgot it on the bus and would have lost it forever if I hadn't been so interested in her already..."

     "She never speaks to any of her classmates, and they never acknowledge her presence. The poor thing," Seulki thought, glancing up from the manuscript she was currently working on. After being taken on as Assistant Editor for one of the country's most reputable publishing company's, Seulki had found her life growing increasingly busy. Not only did she have to deal with the work load her co-workers dumped onto her because she was the newest and they were lazy (Himchan snorted, amused by Seulki's younger self) but the man directly in charge of her had been constantly harassing her since her first day there. ("I did not harass you! I was helping you learn the ropes and-" "What happened to being quiet?")  Having gone so suddenly from unemployment to an intense workload, she had yet to adjust and had been working late hours trying to keep up with everything. Now, she was even taking her work home with her so that she didn't have to sleep in her office- again- and agitate the janitors. ("If it was too much you should have said something; I'd have been happy to help." "Himchan! You are being very disruptive!")

     She suspected that the late hours would remain unchanged despite her attempts to thin out the work load, though, and as such she was forced to take the same bus as the local private school's students. That was how she had come to take an interest in the quiet girl who consistently sat ahead of her every evening. Although she hadn't meant to, Seulki had begun noticing how she behaved, and how the other students treated her, and despite the two never having spoken she began to feel a connection with the girl.

     "This kid could have you arrested if you don't get a hold of yourself." Bowing her head, Seulki focused intently on the manuscript in front of her and began marking a few awkward passages in red. It hadn't taken her long to learn from the company's Desk Editor- Seulki had yet to learn the names of her coworkers, excepting Kim Himchan, of course ("You knew my name right away?" "Only because you were so annoying.")- that being merciless with the pen was a necessity, and that if you imagined it as a weapon and the ink as blood, it made it easier to rip into the manuscript with little mercy. Personally, Seulki found that particular line of thinking to be mildly disturbing, and preferred to not think so deeply about the task she was completing. Crushing the author's writing beneath the nub of her pen and watching the "blood" run was just a little too creative for Seulki. ("I always thought that it was just a coincidence I feel like I'm walking in on a murder scene every time I visit her office." "You visit her office?" "...Nope, never.")

     The neon sign at the front of the bus lit up and announced the next stop. Glancing up from her work to see if they had arrived in her neighborhood, Seulki took a cursory glance at the pixilated writing crawling across the screen and then, when it wasn't her stop, went back to marking up the page. From ahead of her she could feel eyes curiously watching. Peeking through her eyelashes, Seulki noticed that the girl- who until now had always pointedly ignored everyone on the bus- was sneaking glances at the manuscript Seulki was working on. Raising her eyebrows, Seulki didn't comment on the girl's curiosity and quietly allowed her to watch- maybe the girl had an interest in literature? Seulki tucked that away in the back of her mind in case the opportunity to strike up a conversation ever arose. ("Speaking of mental notes, I noticed that you got your nails-" "Thank you, I appreciate the compliment." "You don't sound very appreciative. You didn't even let me finish." "Himchan, stop pouting and let me talk.")

     When she glanced up again, though, the girl was gone. Surprised that she had so suddenly vanished, Seulki straightened up and looked around to see if maybe she had changed seats. Up front, the doors were just beginning to close, and Seulki could see the girl's backpack slipping through. So this had been her stop... committing this bit of information to memory as well, Seulki was about to get back to her work when a blue blob in the corner of her eye caught her attention. Upon further inspection, the blob turned out to be a spiral-bound notebook, typical of students. None of the students currently on the bus were laying claim to it, so she could only imagine that the notebook belonged to the girl who had just disappeared off the bus. They were already pulling away from the stop, however, and as they drove Seulki couldn't spot anyone familiar walking along the sidewalk. Just as quickly as she had vanished from her seat, the girl had vanished from the streets.

     "I'm sure there's a name in here," Seulki thought, flipping the notebook open and scanning the note pages for a homework assignment that might identify who the notebook's owner was. The sensible thing to do in this situation would be to stop by the school on her way to work in the morning and inform them of the situation. This way, it would be the school that returned her notebook and not the creepy lady that sat behind her on the bus. "Twenty-two years old and I'm already a weird old lady." Sighing, Seulki realized that the style of notes had changed considerably upon hitting a certain point of the notebook. Flipping back to the beginning of this switch, Seulki read the first few lines and realized that they weren't lines at all- they were a story.

     For the rest of the evening, the manuscript she had brought with her sat on the kitchen counter of Seulki's apartment, abandoned in favor of the interesting piece of literature she had discovered in the girl's notebook. Although it was very rough and full of grammatical errors, some of which were so basic that Seulki couldn't help but cringe, she could see the potential there. ("This sounds familiar." "No more comments! None!") The girl had good ideas and had created a rich world filled with interesting characters- if Seulki had to fault it in any way plot wise, it would be the fact that it was such a sappy and predictable love story. She was instantly able to tell who ended up with who by the way they were written and their roles in the story- the protagonists always end up together.

     "They break up at the end."

     Seulki's eyes widened in surprise as Hei-Ryung- after some badgering, she had managed to squeeze the girl's name out of her- revealed the conclusion of her story. Sensing the woman beside her's surprise, Hei-Ryung went on to explain how the plot twisted around to reach this conclusion. Now, her jaw had dropped slightly, and Hei-Ryung began shifting uncomfortably in her seat. She hadn't meant to shock the woman so badly- she just hoped it was a good shock and not a bad one, brought on by how terrible her ideas were.

     "They break up?" Seulki repeated, a smile growing on her face. "That's not a very romantic ending," she pointed out, shifting closer to the edge of the seat to give Hei-Ryung more room and hopefully make the girl more comfortable. Today, Seulki had taken a seat beside Hei-Ryung, but had quickly regretted it when she saw how nervous this made the girl. Thus, as they rode alongside one another, Seulki had been getting progressively further away until she was practically falling off the seat. ("Even then you were willing to go to great lengths to accommodate our little prodigy." "I wouldn't exactly call scooting over a 'great length'.")

     "I know, but it isn't a sad ending. The break up is because they realized there isn't a future for them, and they want to move on. She ends up happy at the end and ready to look for her real true love, even," Hei-Ryung defended, the passion in her voice negated by the fact that it was so quiet Seulki could barely pick up on every other word. Still, Seulki could tell that Hei-Ryung took pride in her work and didn't like having someone question it- that was a good sign. Too much pride led to overconfidence and a writer who wouldn't listen to anything you told them, but too much self-doubt meant they would question everything they wrote and never make any progress; Hei-Ryung appeared to have just the right mix of pride and humility, although her personality would never have suggested that.

     "Have you ever thought of getting published?"

     "Not really, I mean-"

     "I work for a publishing company- Nalgae- and I think that if you showed them this they might seriously consider publishing you! It's a good story and unique for the genre you're working with, so I think it would stand a good chance at getting through; I would support you completely, too," Seulki interrupted, eager to convince Hei-Ryung to take the gamble to try to get published.

     "Do you really have that kind of power?" Hei-Ryung hesitantly inquired, watching Seulki's face carefully.

     The woman pursed her lips for a brief second, then smiled sheepishly. "Honestly, I've only been working there for a month- I'm the newest newbie on the planet right now- and don't have much, if any, sway with the company. I'm determined to get you published if you accept, though, and I promise they won't be able to ignore me!" ("That's the truth. I still remember being attacked every time I stepped outside of my office." "I didn't attack you, I just... you know." "Don't worry, it's not as though I disliked all the attention." "Liar, you hated it.")

     Although it had been a struggle to convince Hei-Ryung that she was talented enough to be published, once Seulki had her there was no going back. From then on, she spent every minute of her time in the office lobbying for Himchan to support Hei-Ryung's story and help her convince the Commissioning Editor to accept it. Several times she nearly lost her job after pushing Himchan too far ("I never intended to actually fire you!" "You showed me the pink slip filled out with all my information while standing outside Mr. Kang's office!" "Well... yes- and even then you wouldn't stop arguing with me.") and even more times she had trouble finding him after he went into hiding, with the support of their co-workers, but eventually she managed to convince him that Hei-Ryung deserved to be published ("'Convincing' and 'wearing down to utter hopelessness' are two entirely different things, Seulki."). With Himchan's support, she was able to get Hei-Ryung's incomplete manuscript into the mix of potentials, and together the two worked on polishing it to perfection- or at least as close to it as they could get.

     When it came time to decide if it would be published, Seulki knew that all eyes were on her and Hei-Ryung. If the manuscript went through, it meant that the young woman who had overstepped her boundaries a nearly unforgivable number of times would be tolerated, and that the author- despite her incredibly young age- held some real potential. If not, they would both be kicked out of Nalgae before Seulki could open to protest.

     Fortunately, Baker's Dozen not only was chosen to be published under the company, but became an instant success that protected both girls' futures. ("I wouldn't have let them fire you even if Hei-Ryung's book hadn't been a success, you know." "Says the man who brandished a pink slip in my face." "One time, it was one time that I got a little carried away!")

Author's Note

I didn't really feel like writing Seulki's story in first person (despite that making more sense) so hopefully it being in third person- and the running commentary throughout- isn't too confusing. The ending is a little awkward too, but I'm just glad I managed to come up with what I did. Non-stop writing for three hours tends to fry a person's brain, haha

Ah, and the reason this chapter is out so early is because I started writing it at school today and wanted to continue, and I've been under a ton of stress this week and felt that writing would be a good way to relieve that. Honestly, there was nothing else I wanted to do, so although I'm a little burned out it was definitely worth it ^-^

Initially this was meant to be presented like Ji Suk's first meeting with Youngjae, but then stupid Himchan started making comments and it turned into something totally different :p (typed this on my phone so I will fix the format tomorrow. )