She opened the door to her apartment and what I saw next shocked me. I turned my head to her, but she looked just as confused as me. Her apartment was destroyed. Everything was turned upside down. Pieces of shattered glass and furniture were spread all over the floor. Her shelf was knocked over and all of her books were lying on the floor. She walked further into her apartment with me following behind. Then she started to pick up some things on the floor.

“Don’t tell me you’re renovating,” I joked and as soon as I said it I realized how inappropriate it was and it regretted it right away. “Sorry, that was tactless,” I apologized immediately and kneeled down to help her tidying up.

“Do you want to tell me what happened?” I cautiously asked her after a long pause filled with silence.

She stopped and turned around to face me. Then she sighed and sat down on the floor leaning against the couch. “I rather not, but I owe you an explanation, right?” She let out a sad chuckle.
“Well, as you know I went to Yale. Ivy League, quite expensive. I applied for a scholarship, but got rejected. However, they offered me a regular college place. I wanted to get out of this city, so in desperation I borrowed money from a person I obviously shouldn’t have trusted,” she told me avoiding my eyes the whole time she was talking.

“Hey, no need to be embarrassed.” I took a seat next to her and put my hand on her shoulders to console her. I mustered all my courage and asked: “Can I ask you something?”

“Go ahead,” she replied with a weak smile.

“Why did you accept the job I offered you? I mean you salary is not really high and you knew it won’t increase anytime soon, since I’m still at the beginning. And with your background you could have been employed in a major company…”

“I don’t know,” she shook her head and chuckled.
“I honestly don’t...Maybe I enjoyed working at AOM. I could do the things I love with people I like, without pressure,” she shrugged her shoulders.

“Why didn’t you tell me or anyone?”

“I couldn’t tell Gray, because then he would have tried everything to get me out of that mess, but he doesn’t have much money himself. I would be only a burden to him. Same goes for the other guys.”

“I’ll take care of it,” I said in determination and smiled at her.  She turned her head to me with a puzzled expression on her face.
“No way,” she shook her head violently. “You’re not getting involved.”

“You have a lot of debts and these guys can get pretty ugly and I have enough money to clear these debts,” I explained.

“I can’t let you do that.”

“I rather have you owe me some money then a ticking time bomb. You don’t know how far he’ll go,” I told her concerned. And she knew I was right so she gave in.“I’ll pay you everything back as soon as I can. Every penny including interest.”

“You don’t need t—“

“I want to, please,” she said determined.

“If you promise me to come to me whenever you’re in trouble again.”

She nodded her head in agreement.
“Thank you.”    

                                                                                                             ~*~

When I opened the door to the office I could see Elo and Hyoni fighting over a bottle of wine.  And it seemed like she was winning.
“What’s wrong here?” I asked and gave them a confused look.

“His girlfriend broke up with him,” she said without paying much attention to me and pulled the bottle out of his hand.

“Give it back to me!” Elo cried out loud and judging from his voice he was obviously drunk.

“Getting drunk won’t make your problems disappear,” Simon got in between them and took the bottle.

“Nice guys finish last,” he whispered and threw himself onto the couch, hiding his face in the seat pad. “Why does every girl want a bad boy?”

“It’s the thrill and danger that attracts them.” Hyoni replied and sat down next to him with a sigh. She looked down to him with sympathy in her eyes.

“Are you like that too?” Simon asked with sudden wave of interest