Thank you very much for the subs aaaaaand the upvote :D 

Tiffany’s

            It’s been a month after my first day and I still had a hard time making friends from work. They’re all nice and even asked me to join them for lunch. But due to the or maybe because I was the only new kid, I felt kind of left out. So I chose to eat by myself on the desk with the excuse to finish my work or having lunch with Hyomin if she’s not that busy.

            I looked at the clock and it was already lunchtime. Hyomin was busy today so I guessed I would just buy a sandwich and eat it on my desk. I saw the others already went to lunch. They did ask me to join them, but I declined politely. I didn’t feel like uttering platitude today. 

            I got up from my seat and went to the elevator. I saw it almost closing so I rushed, “Please hold it!”

            The person inside pushed a button and I successfully enter the elevator before it shut close. I looked at the person. Surprisingly, the person was a young woman.

            Was she the new staff of the HR department? I heard my colleagues talked about it.           

            “Thank you.” I spoke after my breath was back to normal due to the small run I did for the elevator.  

            She smiled, “You’re welcome.”

            Should I ask if she’s the new staff from HR? But it would be impolite to ask if she turned out had work here for years and she would judge me ignorant for not recognizing my seniors.

            But then again she did look young and that’s rare in here. So I just went with my guts, “I’m sorry, but are you new here? I haven’t seen you around before.” I asked her as politely as possible.

            She immediately bowed, “Ah, I’m very sorry. Yes, I’m new here. My name is Seo Juhyun and I’m from the HR department.”

            I bowed back, “I’m Hwang Tiffany and I’m from the marketing department.”

            She smiled, “Nice to meet you, Tiffany-ssi. Today is my second day actually.”

            “No wonder. Nice to meet you too, Juhyun-ssi. I just got in the company for a month.”

            “Oh, my supervisor told me about another ‘young staff’ on the marketing department. That must be you.”      

            I snickered, “Yes, that’s me. So we’re the ‘young staff’, huh?” 

            “Compare to them, we are young.”

            I laughed, “I guess you’re right.”

            She laughed with me. Now this kind of person could definitely be my friend.

            “Juhyun-ssi, are you going to lunch?”

            “Well I was going to buy it and went back to my desk.”

            “Why don’t we have lunch then? The ‘young staffs’ should stick together, don’t you think?”            

            She nodded her head and smiled, “I’d love that.”

            It was Friday and Taeyeon wanted to have dinner outside. We agreed to meet in a restaurant we frequently visited. The food was great and I loved the place.

            As soon as I arrived at the restaurant, I could spot her sitting in our usual table looking smart & y in her office attire. The bell dinged when I opened the door and she looked up from the menu she was reading. My lips had mind of its own and I guessed my whole face too because it instantly showed my infamous smile when our eyes met.  

            She also showed her cute smile and waved.

            I gave her a swift kiss on her cheek and sat down in front of her, “Hi.”

            “Hi~”

            She gave me the menu and we ordered our food. When the waiter went away from our table, we started to talk about our day and I told her about this new ‘young staff’ I had lunch with today.

            “That’s nice! She’s the same age as us?”

            “She’s 2 years younger. So she’s the maknae of the company now.” I grinned.

            “Did you connect well with her though?”

            “Very well! I knew we’re going to be good friends.”

            “You knew only from one lunch?” she looked amused.

            “Of course. I told her to skip the formalities and called me ‘unnie’ already.” I grinned. 

            The food arrived and after thanking the waiter, Taeyeon spoke again, “What’s her name?”

            “Why you want to know?”

            She shrugged.

            I smirked, “Are you jealous, Kim Taeyeon?”

            “Nope. I just think I’m entitled to know the name of my girlfriend’s new BFF.” She said in all seriousness.

            I laughed, “Her name is Seo Juhyun, your highness.”

            She looked surprised, “Seo Juhyun?”

            “Yes. Why? You know her?”

            “Is she tall, fair skin, with a long black hair?”

            I recalled Juhyun images on my mind and it fitted, “Yes.”

            “She’s my junior back in high school!” She said excitedly.

            “Seriously?” I said enthusiastically. 

            “Seriously! I remember her because she’s very proper and polite but nice kid nevertheless. Now I’m sure the two of you are going to be good friends.”

            We talked about other stuff and finished our meal merrily. 

            On Monday, I went to lunch with Juhyun again. In the middle of our lunch, I remembered the connection between Taeyeon and her, so I ask to confirm it.

            “Juhyun-ah, do you happen to know Kim Taeyeon?”

            “I have a senior in high school with that name. Why, Unnie?”

            I clasped my hands in delight, “I told her about you and she said you’re her junior! Wow, small world, huh?”

            She looked a little bit surprise and smiled, “Small world indeed. Last thing I heard about her was she got into the best university in the city. It’s actually what motivates me to move here.”

            I raised my brows, “Really?”

            She nodded, “Kim Taeyeon was a respectable sunbaenim to her juniors. She’s always nice to us and she made it into that university. Which was a very big deal in our school.”

            I smiled, proud to be hearing good things about my girlfriend.

            “How do you know her, Unnie?”

            “She’s actually my-” I remembered Taeyeon saying that Juhyun was a proper kid. My relationship with Taeyeon was not really ‘proper’, wasn’t it? I didn’t want to make her feel weird towards me. Uh-oh. What should I do?

            “Unnie? She’s actually your what?” Juhyun asked.

            I smiled nervously, “She’s my......... roommate.”

            Juhyun smiled, “Ah, I see. Well then maybe we can hang out together sometimes. We’re not close back in high school, but it would be nice to know someone from my hometown.”   

            “Yeah, sure.” I answered her with a smile still plastered on my face.

            We continued to eat and I just realized, my colleagues were old. Supposedly, they would think the kind of relationship I had was uncommon, right?                 

Taeyeon’s

            I was having lunch with Sooyoung on this new restaurant near our office. Sooyoung was really eager to try the restaurant and I was the only one who’s willing to accompany her. Usually we would have lunch with our other colleagues, but they were too lazy to go outside our office building. 

            We placed our order and Sooyung was looking around the restaurant.

            “This place is not so bad.” She commented.

            The place was nice, it had a vintage feeling to it.

            “I like it.” I said and looked around also.

            “How things going on with you and oppa?” I spoke after a brief silent.

            “Yah!” She looked around the restaurant again, this time with alert.

            I chuckled, “Nobody from our office is here. They won’t even know who this ‘oppa’ I’m talking about, Soo.”

            Sooyoung moved from our apartment and she lived with a guy who was one of the head department in our office and apparently her senior in high school. 

            “There’s nothing going on, okay. We’re just roommates.”

            “Oh come on, you literally left me and Fany to live with the guy and you tell me there’s nothing going on?”

            She shook her head and put a finger up, “First of all, I know very well that you’re actually happy to have the place for yourselves.”

            I snickered.

            “Second of all............. I don’t even know myself.” She looked downcast.

            “What do you mean?”

            “It’s like he’s giving me mixed signal. One time he would be super sweet making breakfast and dinner, but other time he would ignored me the whole day. It’s confusing.”

            I grinned and started to sing a song by Soyou & Junggigo ‘Some’.

            Sooyoung turned red, “Shut up. Talk about something else than my relationship, please.”

            I chortled, “What do you want to talk about then? My relationship?”

            She made a face, “Ugh, listening to you gushing over Fany in a lovesick way? No thanks.”

            I grinned, “What? Not my fault she’s gushable.”

            “Gushable?! Godness, that’s not even a word.” She rolled her eyes.

            The food arrived and Sooyung seemed to forget everything I said already. 

Tiffany’s

            People loved to leave the office early on Friday. So did I. But I had this work I still need to finish and I didn’t like to leave things unfinished over the weekend. It made me more reluctant to face Monday. Therefore, here I was, still on my desk while everybody had gone home already.

            I was immersed on my laptop when someone called my name.

            “Miss Hwang?”

            I gasped and jerked from my seat and looked up. It was the CEO. I got up abruptly and gave him a bow.

            “Good evening, Sir.”

            He looked at his watch, “Why are you still here?” He had his briefcase on his hand. My colleagues told me Mr. Dong was always the last one to leave the office. Well I guessed this time it was me.

            “I still have some work to finish, Sir.”

            He looked surprised, “Oh... okay.”

            He started to walk away from my desk and when I was about to sit down, he turned around and spoke again, “Don’t overwork yourself, Miss Hwang.”

            I gave him a smile, “I won’t, Sir.”

            He nodded and smiled back at me before going on his way.

            I sat back down and continued where I left off.

            I was almost done when my cell phone rang. It was Taeyeon.

            As soon as I put the receiver on my ear, I could hear her whining voice.

            “Are you done already?”

            I smiled, “Not yet, Tae.”

            “It’s late!!”

            I laughed, “No, it’s not. It’s only..” I looked at the time on my laptop, “8.37pm.”

            “It’s soooo late! You should’ve left office at 5pm. 4.30 even. It’s Friday!”

            “I can’t. I don’t like to leave my work unfinished.” I put the cell phone between my ear and my shoulder so I could start working again.

            “Bring it home then. You can do it on the weekend.”

            “Ugh, no way. I don’t want this work to interrupt my day-offs.”

            She heaved a sigh, “But don’t go home too late, Fany-ah. It’s dangerous.” She sounded worried.

            “I’ll be home before 10. I promise.” 

            “Okay. I’ll see you at home.”

            “Okay." I looked around to make sure nobody's around me, "I love you.” I said with a smile.

            I could imagine her dimple smile when she said it back, “I love you too.”

            I hung up and put the cell phone on the desk.

            Now I needed to finish this as quickly as I can. 

            Monday. Excruciating Monday. Weekends and Taeyeon were two great things for me to unwind. Thank God for them. But surprisingly, this particular Monday started off nicely. I handed my work that I did on Friday to my supervisor first thing in the morning. She was pleasantly surprise and told me I did very well so far.

            That made me happy. So it wouldn’t hurt to join my colleagues for lunch, right? I asked them if Juhyun could join and they said it’s fine.

            “I heard our supervisor is going to retired soon.” One of them started to speak after we sat down with our meal. We were eating in the office cafeteria.

            It piqued my attention, “Really?”

            “She said she’s tired and she wanted to enjoy her time with her family. Especially since her daughter’s going into labor soon.” She answered.

            That’s too bad. I thought my supervisor just started to like me.

            “Who’s going to replace her?”

            “I don’t know. But I think it’ll be you. You’re the assistant supervisor and you worked here the longest between us, right?” she said and asked the guy who’s silently eating his meal.

            “I hope so. But Mr. Dong has this fresh new ideas in mind.” He looked at me for a split second, “Nobody knows who will he choose.”

            “I agree with you. It’s like he wants to change this whole company altogether.” Another one chimed and everybody seemed to have the same opinion as him.

            Juhyun and I kept quiet. They’re not trying to be rude by talking about this ‘fresh new ideas’ from the CEO, but we knew that we were part of that ‘fresh new ideas’.   

            Thankfully the topic moved to their family. Someone just got divorced for the second time, someone complained how school intuition was really expensive these days, someone showed a picture of his son in a toga, and someone finally asked Juhyun and I about relationship matters.

            “I see both of you haven’t married yet.” One of them looked at Juhyun fingers.

            “I haven’t thought about marriage to be honest and I don’t even have a boyfriend yet.” Juhyun spoke.

            “How about you, Tiffany-ssi? You have a boyfriend?” one of them asked and now all eyes were on me.

            Honestly, I wanted to brag about my amazing girlfriend. But then again, they already scrutinize me for being... well younger than them. Even though I had no problem with people judging me, but I didn’t want to give them a reason to alienated me. I wanted to work here for a long time and they were the people I would work with everyday. Even I couldn’t really be friends with them, but at least they’re not hostile towards me.

            I resolved in shaking my head politely. I didn’t lie though. I didn’t have a boyfriend. But I did have a girlfriend.

            “Really???? But you must have at least a dozen of men asking you out.”    

            I smiled. No, but I do have a girl wooing me better than dozens of men could.

            “Honestly, I had my share of heart break because of them in the past and right now, I just...” I cleared my throat before I stated out a lie, “think it’s best if I’m not involved with anybody.” I sipped my drink in hopes to look convincing and expected the topic would end here.             

            A woman nodded, seemingly approving my decision, “Well that’s okay. Take your time. It’s better than swearing off men and turning to women.”

            I choked on my drink and coughed. Juhyun gave me tissues and patted my back. While the others started to state their opinion about the matters and I concluded not to reveal my relationship to anyone in this company.

            Excruciating Monday indeed.            

Taeyeon’s

            “Yo, Taeng! Lunch! Come on!”

            Sooyoung stood in front of my desk with excited face. I saved my work and took my cell phone and purse before getting up.

            “Why are you so excited?”

            We walked towards the elevator to the cafeteria office.

            “Because it’s lunch time! You really need to ask me that?”

            “You’re usually excited for lunch, but not this excited.”

            “I’m on the average level of excited.”

            “No you’re not.”

            “I am.”

            We got inside the elevator and there were already other people inside.

            “You’re so not.” I whispered to Sooyoung.

            She elbowed me to keep me quiet.

            Before we arrived on our destination, the people went out on other level. Finally it’s only the two of us on the elevator.

            “Care to tell me why are you so excited now?”

            Sooyung sighed, defeated. “Fine. Oppa made me breakfast today.”

            “Wow, food gets you everywhere, huh?” I .

            “It’s a sweet gesture, okay.” She retaliated.           

            We arrived at the cafeteria and our other friends already there.

            We bought our food and join them.

            “Hey, you’re not exploring new restaurants today, Sooyoung-ah?” one of them asked.

            “Nope. Nothing new around here lately.” She answered while grinning.

            “That’s because you have tried every new restaurants there is.” I said. The others laughed.

            “Anyway, we were just talking about you, Noona.” Kibum, a guy from different department than me or Sooyoung said.

            “You dare talk about me behind my back?” I pretended to be angry.

            “That’s why I’m telling you now.” Kibum said with a grin.

            “What about then?”

            He had this mischievous look on his face, “Someone has a crush on you.”

            “Really??” Sooyoung stopped eating and looked at him with interest.

            “It’s the new kid on my department. He kept on asking me about you.” Kibum said.    

            “That doesn’t mean he has a crush on me, Kibum-ah.”

            “He asked me too, Taeyeon-ah.” A girl from my department, Noeul, spoke.

            “For real?”

            She nodded with a smile.

            “Well did you guys told him I’m taken AND also not interested in... well... his specimen?” 

            They laughed and Kibum answered me, “Not yet. We decided to play with him a little bit.”

            “Gosh, you guys are mean.”

            They laughed again, “We’ll tell him soon.”

            I shook my head and smiled to myself. It’s been a long time I heard someone had a crush on me. The last one was....... Hwang Tiffany?

            Well that’s the only person I’d like to hear who has a crush on me.