Chapter 4: Meeting

Mercie was glad she lived in an apartment in the middle of the city. Sure, she could barely afford the rent, but the convenience of being a subway ride away from her job was too good to pass up.

Mercie made it to her desk with 10 minutes to spare.

She thought back to the boy who was currently inhabiting her apartment. Would he be ok by himself? Should she call to make sure? Oh right, that wouldn't work, she told him not to answer the phone.

She straightened herself up and checked her schedule for the day. Their weekly meeting was scheduled every Monday morning. They were meant to be strategy meetings for finding out the best stories for the week, but they usually dissolved into celebrity gossip sessions.

"Morning, sunshine."

Mercie spotted her boss approaching her desk from the corner of her eye.

When Kim Minseok broke away from the city's biggest news company to start his own entertainment magazine, Mercie was one of his first hires. Mercie guessed that it made her one of Minseok's biggest confidantes. Which is why when he wasn't at his desk, he could usually be found at hers.

"What's up with your face?" Minseok brought his coffee cup to his lips and raised an eyebrow in mock confusion.

His sleeves were rolled up to his elbows. As usual, he wasn't wearing a tie. Probably to project the appearance of being "the approachable boss". Though, the Rolex on his wrist didn't exactly scream "relatable".

"I'm not wearing makeup today, Minseok. This is how I actually look. This is how women actually look."

Their relationship consisted of sarcasm and good natured digs at each other.

Minseok smirked into his cup of coffee. "Well, then I like it"

Mercie rolled her eyes. She knew better than to be fooled by him. Minseok was not as nice as he wanted everyone to believe. In fact, almost everything that came out of his mouth had a Catch-22. Which is exactly why Mercie never took his compliments seriously. Minseok was the type of guy that could compliment you on your outfit and then turn around fire you in the same day. All with a smile.

Mercie stood up and stretched with a loud yawn as she gathered her things for the meeting.

"Late night?" He was leaning against the side of her cubicle.

What gave it away? Mercie thought to herself. Was it the bags under her eyes, or the fact that she had worn her cardigan inside out?

"Like you wouldn't believe."

Mercie proceeded to follow Minseok into their glass walled conference room.  She hated Monday morning meetings. Not because it was too early, but because there were no chairs. Minseok didn't like sitting down, and therefore everyone had to stand. His philosophy behind the "no-chair meeting" was that it made meetings more efficient, but it just made Mercie more tired.

Minseok immediately made his way to the head of the conference room and began to write on the white board.

"Alright guys, so for upcoming events we have Kris' Press Conference and his Contest Launch Party." Minseok made large strokes with his marker "We need boots on the ground, any takers?"

Mercie looked around the room, out of the seven other employees around the table, nobody else seemed to be budging.

It wasn't that nobody wanted to cover the event. No, it was because nobody wanted to cover a 'Kris event'. The last person that was sent out to Kris' fashion show got into a brawl with a rival news company. He was in the hospital for a week. Let's just say covering a Kris event, wasn't for the weak at heart.

Mercie on the other hand, had a secret weapon and its name was Lay. After a moment of silence Mercie rose her hand reluctantly.

"We have a winner!" Minseok wrote her name down on the white board.

Minseok turned back around with a serious expression on his face. "Don't back down to the other reporters, Mercie. We're counting on you with this one."

Mercie swallowed her saliva. Whenever Minseok made a serious face, he meant business.

Tap, tap, tap. There was a faint tapping on the glass walled conference room. Mercie saw their intern, Karen on the other side of the glass.

Karen poked her head into the conference room. "Uh, Mercie were you like expecting somebody? I don't know...should I like send him out? I should probably send him out right?"

"Use your best judgement, Karen" Mercie said exasperated. Why was she asking her? The whole point of an intern was for them to figure out that stuff, not her.

"Do you know a 'Lay'? I don't know...like...He says he knows you? He's also kind of..." Karen paused to find her words. "Weird..."

"Oh god" Mercie groaned into her hands.

Mercie gave Minseok "I need to go NOW" look. He nodded calmly, allowing her to be excused from the meeting.

"I'll only be a minute!" Mercie said as she exited the room with Karen.

 ---

When Mercie got to the lobby she saw Lay sitting down on the guest couches. When he saw her, he immediately stood up to greet her with a dimpled smile.

"Lay, WHY the hell are you here? HOW did you even get here? HOW did you even find me?"

He was wearing the clothes she had given him, but the first thing Mercie noticed was that he wasn't wearing any shoes. "And for god's sake put some shoes on!"

"I missed you. I walked. I followed your scent...." He paused, then cocked his head to the side in confusion. "What are shoes?" 

Oh god.

"Come on, we're going back home"

Mercie pushed Lay out of the office building and onto the sidewalk. She could feel her phone vibrating in her sweater. It was her mom was calling.

Mercie eyed a sidewalk bench and pointed at it.

"Sit"

Lay obediently went over to sit on the bench. Upon his sitting down, Mercie picked up the phone.

"Yes, Mom?"

"Oh honey!" Her mom was speaking in her worried tone of voice. "Are you ok? Do you want me to come down and get you some soup?"

"What? For what?"

"You sounded so sick on the phone this morning."

"What do you mean? I never--"Mercie paused to watch as a passerby handed Lay a crumpled dollar bill with a sympathetic look.

Realization dawned on her. "That damned dog. After I told him not to use the phone--"

"Dog? What dog?"

"Mom, I'll call you back" she quickly hung up the phone and waved off the stranger who thought Lay was homeless.

"We're getting shoes for you first, then straight home" Mercie warned.

If Mercie knew taking care of a dog was this much work, she would've just gotten a goldfish.

A/N: I wonder if you can guess who my favorite EXO member is lol