1: 3

“Division Chief Kim, please come to the Director’s office.”

Taeyeon remained stuck to her chair, eyes flitting back and forth as her fingers flew around the keyboard. Others would see the rapidly scrolling numbers and think she wasn’t even looking at them; putting up a front that made her look like she was working, but actually wasn’t. Though truth was, she was so intent on the scrolling numbers – subconsciously knowing that a single mistake would mean having to start over from a previous checkpoint – that she failed to hear the summons that sounded from her phone speaker.

“Yah, Taeng, you got called,” Yuri reminded, gently tapping Taeyeon on the shoulder. Said woman snapped out of her concentration, stifling a curse as the moving numbers continued to scroll up the screen. She would have to start over at a ‘checkpoint’: the last place she was working at before messing up.

“Sorry, I know how you get about work and concentration, but Director’s call is Director’s call,” Yuri continued, apologizing as she patted the same shoulder.

Taeyeon nodded, slowly scooting her rolling chair out so she could leave her cubicle. Though she was irritated for having her concentration shot, she was grateful that cubicles allowed partners. Otherwise, she may never hear announcements or people calling her.

“You called, Director?”

The Director looked up from a folder she was reading and placed it down on the desk after closing it.

“Yep. And you know there’s no need for formalities once the door’s closed, Unnie.”

“Sorry Yoong, force of habit.”

Yoona waved the apology away, not really offended. It only showed her how professional Taeyeon could be at work, and that kind of aspect is always a plus. At the same time, Taeyeon had difficulties differentiating work from personal, and that was the main problem.

“Yah yah, I told you it’s fine. Besides, I sort-of have a favor to ask,” she continued, handing over the folder she had just been skimming over. Taeyeon took the folder gently, only opening it when Yoona nodded at the item.

“Rookie Stats? Is that even an actual position?” Taeyeon asked. She knew they had rookies, but they had never been officially addressed as ‘rookies’. Yoona smiled and shook her head.

“No, it’s not an official file; just a brief profile. An introduction, if you will.”

A slight frown appeared on Taeyeon’s features. Why was Yoona showing her an ‘unofficial’ file of a rookie?

“Did she just get in?”

Yoona nodded, pointing to the division and office number the rookie would be occupying.

“She’s going to be taking a tour of the office today and then start tomorrow. And the favor was that I was hoping you could show her around, since you’re the Chief of the division.”

Taeyeon sighed inwardly. She had hoped to have that specific portion of her work done by lunchtime, but it looked like this rookie would be taking up the rest of her day.

“And I’m guessing by ‘showing her around’, you mean give her a tour, show her the ropes, and tell her all the expectations.”

Yoona nodded eagerly, glad that Taeyeon had quickly gotten her hidden meaning.

“You’re getting better at this, Unnie! And I would show her around, but Juhyun’s coming by later with all of the refinanced loans and projected incomes, so that will pretty  much take up the rest of my afternoon,” she explained, sighing a little bit at the end, “I knew I shouldn’t have taken up a job that involves math. Why can’t Juhyun be the Director?”

Taeyeon chuckled. She knew that Yoona didn’t have as much of a love or calling for the numbers as much as Seohyun did. Heck, Seohyun probably worked with numbers better than she did, and numbers was one of the only things Taeyeon took pride in.

“Because you know that her job has to deal with even more numbers than yours, so stop complaining. If the roles were switched, we’d be in the red a long time ago. Be glad there’s someone like Seohyun supervising most of Finances.”

Yoona sighed again, leaning back in her executive chair – the chair, with the way it smoothly spun around, was probably one of the biggest plusses of being Director.

“Then why did you turn down the offer to be Director? I know you love numbers too, Unnie.” She raised a hand, stopping Taeyeon from replying. “Don’t answer that. I know it’s because you hate the limelight and big positions of attention.”

Taeyeon closed her mouth, nodding with a wry smile instead. She did indeed turn down the promotion to become Director at the time their particular division was still starting up, mainly because she wanted to help build a good foundation for the division. Guilt had plagued her for a good few months when she found out that Yoona ended up being the one to take up the role as Director, despite said dongsaeng’s efforts to banish that guilt.

“Hey, it’s not your fault, Unnie. One of us had to take up the role, and even though you would make a pretty badass Director, you’re also a sturdy foundation that the others can build off of and look up to,” Yoona comforted, awkwardly patting Taeyeon’s hand from across the desk. Taeyeon sighed with a nod.

It would be no use arguing with Yoona anymore. Even then, though Taeyeon never said anything, she was always going to be proud of Yoona for being able to direct Data Analysis maturely and soundly. She really wouldn’t have it any other way; Yoona was made for such a role.

“So I just have to show this rookie around for the day? And then make sure she’s settled in for the rest of this week?”

Yoona nodded again, smiling gently.

Another sigh.

“Okay, I’ll do it—”

“Yay!”

“—but only if that means I get to work uninterrupted for all of next week.”

“Wha—Unnie! You’re normally supposed to ask for days off after this kind of thing, not asking for more time to work!”

“Take it or leave it.”

Yoona sighed, defeated. Taeyeon-unnie had always carried out her favors and things of even less importance than that, simply because she had a big heart and loved all of her closest friends. Even though it pained her to actually allow Taeyeon-unnie to work, it was a small way to pay her back in a way.

“Okay fine. But if it’s an emergency…”

“Of course. I have to go now, to meet the rookie.”

“Okay, Unnie. Be nice to her? Yuri-unnie was the one to interview her, and she said that the rookie is a bit sensitive.”

“Sensitive? I’ll keep that in mind.”

They waved at each other before Taeyeon left the office, closing the door gently.

---

“Miss Hwang?”

Tiffany looked up from her observation of the tiles. She’d waited nervously when the desk clerk had told her that someone would come down to show her around. She stood quickly, coming face-to-face with a woman whose face seemed to belie her real experience and wisdom.

And age as well.

“Uh, yes.”

The woman extended a hand, choosing to opt out of the bowing formalities for some reason.

“Kim Taeyeon, but Taeyeon is fine.”

Tiffany shook the hand quickly, hoping the other hadn’t noticed that her hands were shaking. As much as she was nervous about not embarrassing herself before her first official day, being in the presence of this woman made her even more nervous than that. There was a certain confidence and steel underneath the petite frame, and she knew it was steel that she didn’t want to mess with.

“Tiffany Hwang, but you already know that.”

Taeyeon smiled, handing her a folder after introductions were over.

“Inside you’ll find a general layout of the building, what each section of the building does, and a general outline of what your division does. I guess you already know that you’re in Data Analysis, since you’re Statistics.”

Tiffany nodded, choosing only to pull out the map as she followed Taeyeon to the elevator.

“There’s also a list of people who are under Data Analysis, in case it might help you put a name to a face when we go around the office,” Taeyeon explained, pausing in their walk only to tap the bottom of the folder. Tiffany nodded again, opening the folder to find that the list of workers was indeed at the bottom.

Tiffany was surprised at how thorough and considerate the folder was, giving her information about everything that could be learned from paper. Had Taeyeon-ssi put this together?

Not many of the workers actually looked up from their work when Taeyeon opened the glass door to the division, probably because they were used to having interns and rookies being toured around. But the moment one of the male workers caught sight of her, he then proceeded to nudge his cubicle partner and converse in hushed whispers.

Taeyeon sighed, turning halfway to regard Tiffany apologetically. “Sorry, it looks like some of the single guys have caught sight of you. They’re not going to stop bugging you either, and rumors will be running around.”

Tiffany shook her head, not minding in the least. She was here to work, not intently look for a potential date or waste time with such things. Taeyeon saw the look in her eyes and smiled in response.

“Well, good to see that you’re focused on work. You might want to watch out though, because your kindness and hardworking attitude will only be a bigger magnet for those guys. It doesn’t help that a lot of them are at least five years older than you,” she added with a chuckle.

“My friend Yuri, who’s also my cubicle buddy, was victim to a lot of the guys here. There were even guys from other divisions who would come here just to see her. I think I even saw some women, too.” Taeyeon chuckled at Tiffany’s surprise, continuing on her way so she could get the tour over with as soon as possible. “You’ll understand when you see her. She’s really friendly and harmless, so don’t worry.”

“Taeng!”

Taeyeon glanced at Tiffany over her shoulder and shrugged. “Speaking of Yuri, there she is.”

Feeling shy, Tiffany bowed when Yuri bounded over to where they were.

“Hey! So you’re the new girl? Welcome to D.A.! It’s not as exciting here as it is over at Finances or Marketing, but I guess we’re fun enough. Except this kid Shorty right here,” Yuri welcomed, teasing Taeyeon as she shoved the petite woman over.

“Get to work, Kwon.”

Tiffany momentarily froze at the coldness of the voice even as Yuri appeared to be unaffected.

“Dude, Taeng, I told you to be nice today. You’re going to scare her off,” Yuri scolded, casting Tiffany an apologetic look. Taeyeon frowned. She thought she had been nice enough. Hadn’t she?

“Yes yes, you and Director Im both told me that. Now introduce yourself properly Yuri,” Taeyeon replied wearily, gesturing for Yuri to go ahead.

“Well, you know I’m Kwon Yuri according to Taeyeon. Yeah, I’m that girl who got attacked by tons of roses and other funny things from people I don’t know,” Yuri greeted, extending her hand amiably. Tiffany returned the gesture, shaking Yuri’s hand with gentle care.

“I’m Tiffany Hwang and yes, you’re the one Taeyeon-ssi told me about. It’s nice to meet you, Yuri-ssi,” she replied, bowing slightly for a second time.

“Hey, drop the formalities, will ya? It’s just Yuri or Yul, or anything else you want to call me.”

“You can call me anything as well. After all, I’m a rookie here.”

“Even if you were a rookie, the only thing that separates us in this division is age. Rank doesn’t matter here,” Taeyeon interjected, wanting to get that across since she saw it as something of most importance. Yuri nodded in affirmation.

“Yeah, what she said. Honestly, you’re one of the youngest workers here, so everyone else is going to be older than you. There are two who are younger than you, but neither of them wants formalities either.” Yuri left it unsaid that one of those ‘younger’ ones was their Director.

Tiffany nodded, shuffling the papers around and putting them back into her folder.

“Can I come along for your tour? I finished everything I planned to do before lunch,” Yuri asked, adding in that last bit just to poke fun at Taeyeon, who had had her before-lunch work plans ruined. Taeyeon sent her a quick glare before nodding.

---

“Hey Tiffany.”

Tiffany turned her head slightly to let Yuri know she was listening.

“You know about those guys that I said chased me around?”

She nodded.

“Just a fun fact, but Taeyeon had even more fanboys and fangirls than me. In fact, I think she’s the first to have such a big… fanbase, if you wanna call it that.”

Tiffany was surprised at the loose statistics, but wasn’t very surprised that Taeyeon had… ‘fans’.

“You’re not surprised?”

She shook her head. “I’m not surprised that Taeyeon has fans. She has that kind of aura that attracts people to her. Though I didn’t know she had that many fans, especially women.”

Yuri made a face of smug realization, sensing there was something hidden in that comment.

“Ooo, so you admit that Taeyeon attracts people?”

Tiffany nodded as if it made perfect common sense.

“Well yeah, even though people don’t look up when she enters the office, the place felt different when she walked in. And I have to admit, I was really nervous when I first met her; even more nervous than when I was waiting downstairs.”

“Well, I think you’ve got it figured out, hm? You’ve witnessed it already, but just a warning about her working attitude. Since she’s the Chief here, she gets really snappy about work ethic and work quality. Sometimes you might doubt that she’s nice, but she really is. She’s nice.”

Tiffany nodded, ushering Yuri to catch up with Taeyeon. As much as she liked Yuri already, she had to get to know Taeyeon for herself, rather than listen to someone else’s judgment.

---

“Division Chief Kim, um… cou—could I speak w-with you for a moment?”

Taeyeon turned to regard the speaker, brows furrowing as she nodded briefly. “Will you two be okay for a bit? Continue the tour, Yuri.” She walked away with the timid woman after earning two nods.

“Is she going to…?”

Yuri nodded. “Yup, it’s another one of those people. Her fan.”

Tiffany frowned, not quite sure if Taeyeon knew that or not. “Does Taeyeon-ssi ever know if these people have the intention of asking her on a date?”

Yuri laughed, shaking her head. “No, that Shorty is always super oblivious. Why else do you think she has reputation in our division for being a cold hard-ass? She doesn’t care for that kind of thing at work. As sorry as I’ll feel for that woman just now, she should know to not get herself involved with a workaholic like Taeng.”

Tiffany nodded, watching the next scene sparingly as the woman came out of the hallway looking upset. Taeyeon rejoined them a moment after that, looking completely unaffected. It seemed that Taeyeon really did get that many confessions and the sort.

“And here I was thinking she had something to report,” Taeyeon grumbled, running a hand through her hair. The second part of the tour would most likely take up the rest of her day, and she would end up having to work overtime at home in order to get her work done.

“Y’know Taeng, I can take over the rest of the tour. You should go back to work if you really need to get it done,” Yuri offered. Taeyeon shook her head, not wanting to bother her friend about it. In any sense, it was her job to do so, and Yoona had even requested that she carry out the tour as a part of a favor.

And she could never break promises with her friends.

“It’s fine. In fact, you should go back. I can handle the rest of it myself,” she replied, shooing Yuri away with a wave of the hand. The rest of the day would be spent showing Tiffany the ropes and letting her know what to expect on emergency days.

“Aaah, the ropes?”

A nod.

“Okay then, just lemme know if you need anything. I’ll be back at base,” Yuri offered, walking off with a quick salute. Taeyeon sighed, returning the gesture with a quick wave before turning to face Tiffany.

“You heard her. I’ll be showing you the basics now. It’s quite simple, actually.”

Tiffany nodded, following Taeyeon as they made their way back to the office.

---

“Yoong!”

“YAH! Oh, Yuri-unnie! Don’t scare me like that!”

Yuri chuckled. “It’s only payback for the millions of times you scare Seohyun.”

Yoona sulked.

“I’m kidding, Yoong. But okay, about that rookie.”

“Tiffany Hwang? What about her?”

“Don’t play that with me, you sneaky alligator. You sent Taeyeon to her on purpose, didn’t you?”

Yoona shrugged, feigning ignorance. “Tiffany-unnie seems like a really great person, okay? And she’s about Taeyeon-unnie’s age. I think they’d be really great partners in this division.”

Yuri smiled knowingly, shrugging in return. “Okay then. I’ll just pretend by myself that you were trying to set Taeng up with Tiffany.” She knew Yoona was caught the moment the latter broke into a grin at the nonchalant accusation.

“AHA! So you admit to setting them up!”

Yoona returned the shrug. “I dunno, I just sent our Division Chief to welcome our most promising rookie yet. Is that so bad?”

“Nah, it’s not bad at all, Yoong. Not bad at all…”

“Yeah, I know. And it’ll be even better when they do get together.”

---

“That’s pretty much it. Do you have any questions or concerns? Comments will go unheard.”

Tiffany smiled, shaking her head. The ‘ropes’, as Yuri deemed them, were as simple as Taeyeon said they were. She already knew what she was supposed to do during her job since that was what she’d been training for in college.

Come in for work, work until lunch, have lunch, continue work, go home, possibly do work at home.

Simple enough.

There would be biweekly reports that needed to be submitted along with a brief, condensed layout of whatever was worked on for a deadline. Other than that, if she finished her work she was free to take days off without penalty or taking away from her vacation and sick days. It seemed to her that Statistics was one of the more lenient sections of the team.

It had surprised her that she would mostly be working with Taeyeon just because she was one of the few statistical analysts on the team. Other senior members of Statistics were already assigned to less veteran partners, and the Director had somehow deemed it appropriate for her to work with Taeyeon.

The fact that Taeyeon was the most experienced and that she was the least experienced somehow made sense to the Director. But if she thought about it, it also made sense to her as well.

“Okay then. You’ll start tomorrow. Whenever you have a question don’t be afraid to ask me. I’m just three cubicles away,” Taeyeon said, giving a nod to Tiffany before starting to walk off.

That got Tiffany’s curiosity though. “Taeyeon-ssi?”

Taeyeon stopped. “Yes?”

“Even though you’re the Division Chief, you still have a normal cubicle? I noticed that other Chiefs have their own separate offices. Is it just you that works like everyone else, then?”

Taeyeon shrugged, not really thinking such a thing was that important. She was here to work, so why go through all the trouble to make herself harder to reach? Not only that, but it was a pain to move everything.

And even though she wouldn’t admit it, having Yuri around was a good thing. They wouldn’t be able to remain cubicle partners if she moved into the Chief’s office.

Tiffany seemed to understand Taeyeon’s nonchalance for the supposedly prestigious office space and left it at that.

“If that’s all, you’re free to go. Otherwise, don’t cause trouble,” Taeyeon said sternly. She didn’t want trouble in the division, and even less if it was a rookie causing trouble by bothering everyone.

She had been nice enough today. Right?

“I will go in a bit. For now, would it be okay if I observed what you did? Since we’re informally partners in work,” Tiffany requested, wanting to know a bit about how exactly Taeyeon worked at the office. Yuri had said she was cold and all business, but she wanted to see for herself. It couldn’t be that bad, right?

Taeyeon shrugged.

“I don’t mind.”

---

It was interesting to say the least, watching Taeyeon work. Tiffany had tried her hardest to pay attention to the rapidly moving numbers, but in the end all it did was strain her eyes. Just how did Taeyeon stare at that screen for minutes on end without losing her place or her concentration? Statistics took time because of the need to plot data, organize it, and then fit it into some understandable semblance of universal language. Not only that, but a single mistake could potentially jack up predictions and estimates.

And that wasn’t even scratching the first millimeter of Statistics.

Taeyeon seemed to sense her distress at the influx of numbers, because her flying fingers eventually slowed to a halt, followed by the numbers.

“D.A. is a lot different from Stats, isn’t it?” the petite woman asked, the smallest hint of a smile tugging at the corner of her lips.

Tiffany nodded, not sure how to reply to that. It was different indeed. “Yeah, but at the same time, they use the same thing.”

“Numbers.”

Tiffany nodded again. “Numbers.”

It remained silent as Taeyeon turned her attention back to the screen, the scrolling numbers picking up speed again. Tiffany watched the numbers whizz by like scenery, getting lost in her thoughts.

At some points, Taeyeon would seem too cold to touch, distant even from a close friend like Yuri. Other times, she would have a small, approachable warmth that would fade after a brief moment. Even though it wasn’t even her first day at work, Tiffany found Taeyeon to be just as enigmatic as the numbers she worked with.

The same thing, but completely different and moving at a quick, deadly pace.

I/N: No, I'm only here because I wanted to try my hand at something not as confusing as The Shadow. THEREFORE: FLUFFLYFLUFY THINGS.

Yup, this is most likely a multi-shot. And their roles as office workers do add some meaning to the story, so they're not JUST role-playing to role-play.

Yeah I'm a wizard.