Mei's Note: NOT MINE. this belongs to the lovely PositivelyDLiteful

Mei glowered darkly at the neon pink sign on the copy machine. It read, in disgustingly flowing Sharpie calligraphy: 'Dear Employee From Some Other Department - I understand if you want to use our copier to escape whatever hellhole you hourly wage-slaves are chained to for a few minutes, but if you're going to use all the toner printing out useless copies of useless reports for your useless supervisor, could you kindly see your way towards replacing it? Thanks in advance, Public Relations :)'

Growling, she yanked the tray open, snatched out a sheet of paper, and scribbled out a response: 'To Whichever Passive-Aggressive Snot It May Concern: believe me, if your copier wasn't the only working machine in a five-floor radius, I wouldn't set foot in this den of manipulation and lies for whatever outrageous amount they overpay you to smarm your way through your three hour workday. Most sincerely, IT RC'

Slapping it next to the first note, she taped it down with perhaps more tape than necessary, made her copies, and left.

The next day, she found another sheet of paper - this one horribly vibrant green - taped over her message.

This one didn't bother much with addressing her, simply reading 'you would think someone in IT would be able to fix a copier, but I suppose it's only fair, since you make what you're worth'

Jaw dropping, she scribbled underneath it, 'you would think someone in PR for this company would know that IT RC stands for Information Technology - Research Computing, not Xerox Maintenance Drone'

Not three hours later, coming back to fax this time, Mei found a purple sticky note in the shape of a cat face over the Fax/Copy button, reading, 'please see PR Management for Fax/Copy passcode'

"Dickwad," she growled. Moving the sticky note over, she pulled out her pad of notepaper and flipped to a fresh page, scrawling a quick rebuttal, tearing it out, and taping it under the sticky note before faxing her report - no code needed.

'please see IT Management to submit requests for outside calling codes'

'per company policy, please submit complaints about circumvention of IT code requests to the shred bin'

'per personal policy, please submit complaints about IT RC making you look bad by actually attempting to be productive to the shred bin'

'per human decency please refrain from casting aspersions on those who have earned their place at this company to alleviate whatever inferiority complex you suffer from as it interferes with company morale'

'per human decency please refrain from coming to work without a bag over your head you obnoxious toad'

'you seem to respond more aggressively to suggestions your department might be beneath ours - hitting close to home?'

'I'd like to see how you respond to-'

"Excuse me," a smooth voice spoke up, interrupting Mei as she was finishing up the kind of note that could probably get her fired, "can I get by? I need to make copies."

Turning, she made a startled little noise, then relaxed. The copy-hopeful was clearly not her adversary, she thought, taking in his wildly colorful hair, casual-yet-weirdly-fashionable clothing, and polite smile. He couldn't possibly work in PR, anyway.

Not with that kind of personality, anyway. Or, well...ANY personality, really.

"Oh." Stepping aside, she nodded. "Yeah, sorry." Then, because she really needed someone to vent to, she leaned against the wall and nodded to the notes, now fluttering in the air conditioned breeze like the leaves of some alien climbing vine. "But PR really hates it when people use their copier. I think it's some kind of compensatory thing, you know?" she added unkindly. "They're useless and petty, so they need something to make them feel important."

"Hmm." Smirking, the man reviewed the notes. "I can see that." He pointed to one of her responses. "This was you?"

"Oh." Flushing, she coughed. "Uh...I don't take people being passive-aggressive with me very well."

"No kidding." Looking up at her, he copied her stance, leaning on the wall on the other side of the copier and crossing his arms. "So that must mean you're in Research Computing?"

"Yeah." Pushing her hair out of her eyes, she looked down, feeling oddly shy. "I'm heading the team developing the new billing software," she added. It was an achievement she was proud of, being so new and all.

"Wow - you look pretty young to be heading a team," he observed, "so you must be good at what you do."

"Uh...I guess?" She shrugged. "Maybe all the stuff from school is still fresh in my head or something, you know?"

He nodded, grabbing his copies. "Yeah, I'm sure it's just that you're skilled at your job - you look competent."

He walked away before she could reply, but she uttered a small, "uh...thanks?" anyway.

When he'd disappeared from view, she looked down at her note and crumpled it up, tossing it in the shred bin, and took out a fresh sheet of notepad paper.

'Attn: All Public Relations Goons - be advised your department is not the center of the universe. Sharing Is Caring'

Taping it up and admiring her somewhat kinder response compared to the one she'd been about to leave, she made her own copies and walked away.

The next day, there was a new note. 'Attn: All Non-Public Relations Interlopers - be advised you have your own copiers and Xerox has a service center. Make The Call'

Huffing in irritation, she put her sheets on the copier and jabbed the 'start' button viciously.

"Bad day?"

Colorful Guy was back, this time carrying a stack of what looked like flyers. He eyed the new notes with a raised eyebrow.

"Ah, that." Coughing, Mei grabbed her copies as soon as they were spat out and backed away to let him through. "Sorry, PR is just...ugh."

"Useless?" He grinned.

"I..." She paused, considering. "No. Not useless. Just...not as hot as they think they are, you know?"

"Mmhmm." He nodded in sympathy, but then tilted his head. "But that's kind of their job description, isn't it? Being over-confident used car salesmen who honestly believe they can change reality with just their words?"

Mei shrugged. "I guess...?"

"Still, this is kind of rude. You know, leaving these notes instead of talking to you personally."

"Yeah." Shifting uncomfortably, Mei was suddenly overcome with the feeling she was being reprimanded. But that was ridiculous - he was agreeing with her, after all.

"I mean, if someone does something that irritates you, the best thing to do is be proactive and bring it up with them."

"Mmhmm...that's...that's the right thing to do."

"I mean, the first note alone was kind of douche-y," he nodded, tapping at it. "Passive-aggressive, right?"

Mei swallowed. Oh. OH.

She WAS being reprimanded.

"You know," she said, a bit of bite reentering her voice, "if someone is doing something that irritates you..."

He threw her a little smirk. "Don't worry, it's not irritating to me," he reassured her. "Just amusing." Taking his copies, he walked away, leaving her gaping after him.

Who the hell WAS he?

Sitting at her desk, Mei chewed on the end of her pen, glowering at the company picnic photo page on the intranet and jiggling her knee anxiously.

"Can't hide from me you little...little...lizard," she hissed. "A-HA." Jabbing at a photo of five young men from various departments, she read the names in the caption.

"Choi Seunghyun, Client Services...no, that's...oh, he's pretty," she breathed. Shaking herself after a moment, she continued. "Dong Youngbae, Employee Health, nope...nice abs, tho..."

"Kang Daesung, Human Resources...nope...aww, how cuuute," she cooed at him, his photographed smile lighting up the rest of the picture.

"Lee Seunghyun...dude, that kid is the CFO?!" Blinking at the picture, which was of a young man who seriously looked twelve, she shook her head in amazement. "Wow."

"YOU," she growled, jabbing at his name with her finger. "It was YOU. All this time..." Narrowing her eyes at Colorful Guy - whose name, she now knew, was Kwon Jiyong, and oh, yes, he worked in PUBLIC FREAKIN RELATIONS - she scribbled down his information from the internal contact list and grinned, victorious.

"Let's see how you like me now, Lizard Face."

The next day, when she went to make copies, she found it free of notes, full of toner, and accompanied by one Kwon Jiyong, who was watching her with a sour sort of expression.

"Really? You had to get Daesung involved?"

She raised an eyebrow, pointedly slotting her pages in carefully and pressing the 'start' button with a dramatic flourish. "I can't imagine what you mean. I just emailed HR about an inter-office conflict that was interfering with my department's workflow."

"He called me a five-year-old," Jiyong griped, draping himself over the copier JUST SO, making it impossible to grab her copies.

"Well," Mei reasoned, "maybe you should try not acting like a five-year-old."

"I wasn't..." Grumbling, he grabbed her pages and them at her. "We could have avoided all of this if you'd just come and talked to me about it."

Mei gaped at him. "Oh," she snapped, "like you came and talked to me about your toner ?"

"My-" Rubbing his eyes tiredly, he snorted. "Oh, my god, you think this was all about the toner."

She paused mid-storm-out, turning to point at him accusingly. "How can you even....of course it was about the toner! You even said! That it was about! The toner!"

"It had nothing to do with ing toner," he half-shouted back, waving his arms and looking as lost as she felt. "I just wanted you to talk to me!"

"About what?" she sighed, rolling her eyes.

He stared. Blinked. Stared some more.

"About...about..." He cleared his throat. "About...damn it, you're kind of intimidating, you know that?"

She stared at him, bewildered. "What?"

"I just...I see you come up here and use our copier and hear you mutter about the anatomically improbably things you want Xerox to do with their broken copiers and you look so cute and I just...wanted...to talk to you," he finished, turning red, all his previous confidence gone.

This time, it was Mei who stared at him. She looked down at her copies, then back at him. "I...what?"

"So, can we just...have coffee?" he asked, sounding like he was bordering on hysteria. "Without the passive-aggressive notes?"

She blinked, turned, and walked away.

Jiyong sighed as he trudged to the thrice-damned copier to fax a press blurb, wishing he could just...not.

He'd ed up, he knew. He had no idea what the hell he'd been thinking. He was usually so confident when it came to approaching girls he liked.

Something about Mei, though - she was so...so...ugh. Groaning, he rounded the corner and froze.

There, on the copier, was a note.

'Dear Incomprehensibly Moronic Lizard Faced Jackass PR Rep: you're definitely a ing five-year-old and you have no idea how to talk to girls and that shouldn't be cute but it kind of is I'll meet you by the first floor vending machines at 6pm. That's when us wage-slaves clock out, and I know it means working more than your usual three hours, but tough see you at 6 go yourself ~Mei'