"Is that the girl? Ms Kim's new secretary?"

Whispers were heard among a group of 3 girls, the moment Tiffany walked into the queue. She was at the company's cafetaria to get some sandwiches and drinks for her and Taeyeon since both of them had woken up late for work and missed their breakfast. They had went back to visit Taeyeon's family and were caught in the traffic jam on the way back, reaching Taeyeon's apartment only at 1am.

"I heard she's staying at Ms Kim's apartment. Do you think they have something going on with each other?" Another girl commented.

Tiffany could hear all the murmurs since the group of girls were just a short distance away from her in the queue. Tiffany pretended to ignore it as it was already a common thing that has been going around since she started work a month ago.

"I heard she didn't even need an interview to get that secretarial post. Not sure if she's really good enough. Maybe she slept with..." The girl couldn't finish her sentence when she was interrupted.

"Yah!! Don't you have anything better to talk about instead of badmouthing others and spreading false rumours around?" A girl from behind Tiffany suddenly spoke as she gently pushed Tiffany aside and folded her arms.

"That's right. Stop gossipping about others when you don't even know her well or how good she is with her work. Tiffany-unnie is way much better than any of you." Another girl appeared and stood beside the first girl, glaring hard at the other group.

"Irene, Yeri." Tiffany put her hands on each of their shoulders and shook her head before turning to face the other 3 girls. "I'm sorry for their outburst. Please don't mind them."

Tiffany smiled sincerely at the girls and bowed her head slightly. The girls were dumbfounded and didn't knew how to react. They just bowed back and quickly left the cafetaria. Tiffany then made her payments for the sandwiches and drinks before gesturing to Irene and Yeri to follow her.

"Girls, there was no need to be so defensive earlier." Tiffany spoke softly as they made their way to the lift.

"But they were talking bad about you and spreading false rumors." Irene replied with an unhappy tone.

"They don't even know you. Even though we don't know you that well too since we've only worked with you for only a month, but we know that you're capable. Seeing how Ms Kim is always in a good mood when you are around, it means that you're a good person too." Yeri added on.

Tiffany smiled at the two girls. Both of them were Tiffany's new colleagues, along with 3 other girls who were working under Taeyeon. Initially, all of them were quite awkward to get close to her but she took the initiative to make them feel comfortable around her.

"If Ms Kim knows about this, those girls will have to face her wrath." Irene said the moment they reached their office.

By then the other 3 girls had joined them as Irene and Yeri started to narrate about what happened earlier in the cafetaria. Wendy, Joy and Seulgi started shaking their heads as they listened to the story.

"All those girls are just jealous of you, Tiffany-unnie." Wendy commented. "Most of the girls here have been trying to apply for that post ever since Sunmi left."

The moment Tiffany heard that name, she became curious and started asking the girls about her.

"The ones who knew her are only Irene, Wendy and Joy. Me and Yeri only joined the company last year." Seulgi admitted as Tiffany nodded her head.

"Sunmi does her work well. Always on time and was also nice towards us. But..." Joy stopped talking and looked around before she continued. "I think she has a huge crush on Ms Kim."

"After she left, Ms Kim didn't look for a replacement. Rumors began to spread that she and Ms Kim had something going on even to the point of accusing them of sleeping together. Just like what is happening right now to you, Tiffany-unnie." Irene said. "If Ms Kim finds out about all these rumors, those girls earlier would most probably be facing disciplinary actions from the management."

"Did the company pay you girls to gather around and gossip about others?"

The 6 girls turned around to face an angry-looking Taeyeon who was standing at the door with her arms folded. They quickly apologised and dispersed to their own tables.

"Tiffany Hwang. In my office. Right NOW." Taeyeon said as she turned around and slammed her door behind her.

Tiffany, who was just about to sit down on her chair, stood up and looked towards the girls. They were all looking nervously at her and even showed her a 'hwaiting' sign as Tiffany took a deep breathe before knocking on Taeyeon's door.

************************

Taeyeon was standing facing the window when Tiffany walked in. From a distance, Tiffany could see that Taeyeon was still folding her arms.

"Taetae?" Tiffany called out softly since she was not sure why Taeyeon was acting that way. "I've brought your breakfast."

Tiffany walked closer to the couch and placed the food on the table. She didn't dare to sit and was about to walk away when Taeyeon turned around.

"Where's your share?" Taeyeon asked, still having that serious look on her as Tiffany pointed to the paperbag on the table.

"I'm sorry. I didn't manage to separate mine from yours. I'll.. " Tiffany was about to grab the food when Taeyeon walked towards her.

"Sit down and have breakfast with me."

For the next 10mins, no one said anything as Tiffany stole glances at Taeyeon who was sitting on the other couch. She could sense that Taeyeon was in a foul mood and knowing Taeyeon, she knew that she should just let Taeyeon calm herself down first.

"Is everything okay at work?" Taeyeon suddenly asked without looking at Tiffany.

Turning her head, Tiffany observed Taeyeon's expression. At that instance, Tiffany knew that Taeyeon had known about what has been going on lately.

"It's just some rumors, Taetae." Tiffany replied with cautious. "It'll go away after a while."

"How long had it been going on? And how much longer are you planning to let them make a joke out of you?" Taeyeon stood up and walked towards the window again.

Tiffany knew that Taeyeon was upset. That was Taeyeon's way of hiding her unhappiness from her, by keeping a distance from her. Making her way towards the unhappy girl, Tiffany wrapped her arms around Taeyeon's waist and gave her a backhug.

"Calm down. It's not like you, to be so easily piss off." Tiffany said softly.

Ever since Tiffany had started working as Taeyeon's secretary, their relationship has improved a lot. They were a lot more comfortable around each other especially since Tiffany moved in to stay with Taeyeon 3 weeks ago.

But this is the first time that they were hugging as Taeyeon froze. It's been a long time since she had felt the warmth of the girl whom she loved so much. Taeyeon tilted her head to the side and looked at Tiffany who was shyly smiling at her.

"I don't like it when others talk bad and spreading lies about you. That's harassment, bullying." Taeyeon frowned.

"Let them talk, Taetae. At the end of the day, people who believe and trust me will always stick by me. Don't you agree?" Tiffany said as Taeyeon took a while before nodding her head. "Don't be angry anymore, okay. You're scaring me and the other girls with your fierce look."

Taeyeon suddenly grinned before it turned into a cheeky smirk. "If I wasn't angry, you won't be hugging me to calm me down."

It was then did Tiffany realised that she was still hugging Taeyeon's waist. She quickly released her arms and smack Taeyeon lightly on her back.

"Cheeky Dork. I'm going out now to finish my work." Tiffany meronged at Taeyeon who was pretending that her back was hurting. "I'll see you later for lunch."

*************************

"So basically, we will be releasing this album for the Christmas season with a combined collaboration from all our singers." Sooyoung said as she pointed to the screen which showed a list of a few songs. "I'm targeting to have it done 2 weeks before Christmas which means we have less than 2 months to finalise everything. Andy-ssi, how's the recording?"

"It's almost done. We're just at our final stages to fine tune some of it." Andy answered and showed a thumbs up to her.

Sooyoung started to ask around from the designing team to the marketing team as the meeting progressed on. Tiffany was seated beside Taeyeon who was looking through the papers that was in front of her. While Tiffany was busy taking down notes for the meeting, Taeyeon doesn't seem to be listening in to what was being discussed.

"Taeyon-ssi, is there anything that you would like to add on?" Sooyoung suddenly asked as Taeyeon looked up.

Taeyeon nodded her head and stood up before walking to where Sooyoung was standing. Taeyeon then started to talk about how some departments were not properly filing their expenditure claims and not submitting it promptly to the finance department.

"I've been receiving feedbacks from my finance team that they are having a difficult time processing some of the claims as it was overdue for more than a month. Even though I'm the overall in-charge of the finance department, I myself will have to submit proper documentation to my finance team. Do you expect them to approve your expenditure claims when you just hand them receipts without proper explanation of what it was spent on? Some of the receipts are even backdated. There's a lot of backend to be done if documents are not submitted properly." Taeyeon frowned as she continued to talk.

From where she was seating, Tiffany was trying her best not to smile as she felt amazed looking at the confident and serious girl in front of her. Seeing the way Taeyeon was talking right now, no one would ever guess that Taeyeon was actually an introvert by nature. Tiffany had heard some complaints from her colleagues that they sometimes had to stay back just to finish up their work especially at the end of the month. Some of the staffs from other departments would just expect them to approve their expenditure in 3 days time when the process itself would take at least a week.

"Starting from today, expenditure claims should be done within a week of the receipts date. Any later than that, your claims won't be approved which means you'll be using your own money. Another thing is, direct approval by me will be needed for procurement of items above one million KRW with no guarantee of approval." Taeyeon ended her speech. "Any questions?"

A girl raised up her hand as Taeyeon gestured her to continue talking. "Since your finance team are having problems coping with their workload, why don't you just add more staffs to your team? By the way, you've recently got a new secretary for yourself. Doesn't your secretary assist them in anyway? We didn't have much problem when your previous secretary was still around. I think she did a better job."

"Let me just correct your sentence. My finance team doesn't have a problem coping with their workload if everything was handed over to them properly. Do you know how much time they have to spend going back to and fro the departments just to ensure that documents are submitted and filed accordingly? Furthermore, just in case you're not aware, I've already added in 2 more staffs into the finance team since last year." Taeyeon stared hard at the girl. "With regards to your last comment which I personally think is redundant, my secretary will do the job that she's assigned to. Whether she does a good job or not, you're not in the position to judge. Just for your additional info, my previous secretary and my current secretary are not part of the finance team. They have their own work to deal with."

Tiffany saw that Taeyeon was gripping the edge of the table as she quickly kicked Sunny's legs from under the table. Sunny, who was seated beside her, was quick enough to understand the situation.

"So... Any more questions?" Sunny suddenly stood up and walked towards Sooyoung and Taeyeon at the centre of the conference room. Seeing that no one was raising their hands, Sunny continued. "The new instructions by the Finance department had been approved by the Chairman and I. One of the reasons for the change is to streamline the approving process for a better filing system which will be useful when auditors are around. Since there's no further questions, meeting will be adjourned."

Everyone walked out of the meeting room except for SooSun and TaeNy as Taeyeon sat down and rubbed her temples. Sooyoung went over and patted her back.

"Gwenchana?" Sooyoung asked as Taeyeon nodded her head. "Don't let her comments affect you. You should know that she always does that in almost every meeting."

Tiffany turned to look at Sunny for explanations.

"That girl earlier is Sunmi's good friend, Sohee. She's our head of marketing department. She has been holding a grudge towards Taeyeon ever since Sunmi left. I think she blamed Taeyeon for that." Sunny said. "Every time we have a meeting, she will find an opportunity to ridicule Taeyeon especially if Taeyeon does a presentation or has something to inform them like today."

Tiffany looked surprised as she turned to look at Taeyeon who gave her a sad smile. "Besides her, is there anyone else that I need to be aware of?"

"She's the only one who had clearly shown her dislike for Taeyeon. I'm not sure if there is others but I think Taeyeon has more admirers than haters in this company. Am I right, Taengoo?" Sooyoung teasingly nudged Taeyeon's shoulders as Taeyeon pretended as if she wanted to punch her.

"Don't worry. I'll make sure that she behaves." Tiffany replied with a straight face while packing her things on the table. "I'll see you later at the office."

Tiffany stood up and left the meeting room along with Sunny as Sooyoung continued to laugh at Taeyeon after Tiffany's remarks.

"So, have you ask her yet?" Sooyoung asked as she stood up and walked to a corner of the room where there was a table with the leftover food from the meeting.

"Ask who and ask what?" Taeyeon had a confused look as she joined Sooyoung at the table before grabbing a packet drink.

"Yah, pabo.. I'm talking about Fany. Have you asked her to be your girlfriend yet?" Sooyoung swallowed the mini sandwich as Taeyeon shook her head. "Yah!! She's been here for more than a month. How long more are you planning to wait? A year?"

"Things are just getting back to how it was before. I... I'm scared." Taeyeon frowned a little. "I don't want to hurt her again. I don't want to lose her again."

"I understand, Taeng but she has already shown you how much she wants to be with you by coming to Seoul. Obviously, she's waiting for you to make the first move. Be brave, my friend. She's the one that you've always wanted. Don't let the fear consume you. Use the fear of losing her as a motivation for you to work harder to keep the relationship going." Sooyoung showed a 'Hwaiting' sign to her best friend.

Meanwhile, somewhere near the lift, Sunny and Tiffany were also talking about the same thing.

"You mean Taeyeon hasn't asked you yet?" Tiffany shook her head to Sunny's question. "What is holding that midget back?"

"I'm not sure. She's been very cautious around me so far, especially when we are in the public. Usually, I'll be the one who will initiate skinship between us. I think she still has some fears left in her." Tiffany replied.

"If she ask you to be her girlfriend, what will your answer be?" Sunny asked as she heard the lift arriving.

"Do you think I came all the way from Tokyo and even resigned from my dream job, just to reject her?" Tiffany answered as Sunny laughed. "It's obvious what my answer will be, Sunny."

"You may think that it's obvious but for her, maybe it's not." Both of the girls walked into the lift as Sunny pressed the number 9, followed by the number 10. "If like what you said, that Taeyeon still has some fears, she might take some time to overcome it."

"In that case, all I could do is just wait. You don't expect me to make the first move right? I'm the princess in the relationship and she's my 'Wangjanim'." Tiffany chuckled as she reached her floor and exited while Sunny just rolled her eyes at her bestfriend.

************************

"Hey, hey, hey. Look who had just made an entrance in our turf. It's Prince Nicky."

Two guys were seen shaking the hands of Nicky who had just walked into the club's VIP room. The 3 of them took a seat among the 4 girls who were dressed skimpily and pouring whisky for them.

"What's with the face, bro? You look like you need a good 'time' with the girls tonight. Just choose one, My treat." One of the guys continued talking as Nicky just stared hard at him.

"I'm not in a good mood, Keith." Nicky replied as he qulped down a shot. "I'm ing pissed off at the moment."

"Wow.. What's wrong bro? Need our help? Keith and I will do anything for you." The other guy answered as Keith nodded his head and gave him a high-five. "But before that, you es. Leave the room. Daddy Tom will call you back once we're done with our talk."

The 4 girls rolled their eyes at him before making their way out of the room.

"Do you remember Tiffany?" Nicky asked as Tom and Keith nodded their heads. "She left for Seoul to get back with her ex-girlfriend about a month ago. That stupid, nerdy and short Kim Taeyeon. I can't believe her. All these years, I've always been there for her and she doesn't even appreciate it. What does that Kim Taeyeon has that I don't? I'm way better off than her."

"Damn. That hurts, man. Losing out to a girl. But please tell me that you had slept with her atleast once?" Keith asked as Nicky shook her head once.

"What? After all these years and you got nothing? You're a loser, dude. You've been sleeping around with so many girls and you couldn't do so with her? What's wrong with you?" Tom said as Nicky grabbed his collars.

"Because she's special. At least to me, she is. It's not that I hadn't tried to do something though. I just didn't want to force myself on her even if I could." Nicky tried to explain as he released his hands.

"That's your loss, Nicky. Maybe if you had shown her how good you are in bed, she might have stayed." Keith sneered before breaking out into a teasing laughter as Tom joined in.

"That's actually not a bad idea." Nicky smirked to himself as the 3 of them high-fived to each other before Nicky continued talking about what he had planned in mind.

Without them realising, someone has been eavesdropping on their conversation by the door, which was not closed properly when the 4 hostess left the room earlier. That person was walking along the corridor when she heard someone mentioning the name Kim Taeyeon from one of the rooms, prompting her to stop walking and listen to the conversation.