As soon as Jessica had gotten off the bus, she headed straight to her office space in the firm. She made a bee line to one of the cubicles in the very corner, furthest away from Tiffany’s office. The faded brick walls and the wooden floors made the place look like it could be bar with the right lighting and a ton of alcohol and if office hours were 24 hours. Her shoes tapped the wooden floors of the building as she pressed the elevator floor and passed the assistant’s desk near the front window by the entrance.

“Morning.” Yuri and Sooyoung looked up from the front desk and nodded at her.

“Morning, ladies.” Minho smiled, walking behind Jessica. He was wearing jeans and a tight fit shirt that made the muscles on his arms more defined. His black and blue snapback with a backpack strapped on his back made him look like he too was also a college student, much like what the girl on the bus had told Jessica. “Where’s the boss?” He scanned the floor. “Is she on the second floor?”

Yuri shook her head, “She said that she had some things to do.”

“Don’t you mean, someone to do?” Sooyoung muttered under her breath. Yuri gave her a sharp nudge. “I’m just saying. The more she spends time with Taeyeon, the more attached she’s going to get and the more she’s going to get hurt.”

“Boss is a lesbian?” Minho asked.

“Is that a problem?” Yuri asked seriously.

“Not at all,” Minho grinned. “I have a little brother who isn’t out of the closet yet, but I’m hoping he’ll be out soon.”

“How old is he?” Sooyoung asked.

“He’s gonna be 17 in a couple of weeks actually.” Minho nodded. “I should head to the second floor. I need to get some stuff ready before the meeting later today. Did you guys get the email I sent a couple hours ago?”

“We did.” Yuri nodded and opened her laptop. “I don’t like your email address by the way.”

“What’s wrong with it?”

Yuri sighed, “I don’t think [email protected] is a professional sounding email address. What if you need to give your email address to clients?”

“I was a drummer in college, that’s all there is to that. Besides, that’s my personal email, I have a separate email for business.” Minho took his hat off. “I know that difference between professionalism and my personal life. My personal email doesn’t get spam, so it’s easier for me to see what you’ve emailed me faster than having me dig through that pile of rubbish in my unread folder.”

“What are you guys just standing around here for?” A voice asked, sounding a bit irritated.

“It’s just you.” Minho sighed in relieve. “I thought that it was the boss.”

“What about me?” Ailee crossed her arms and glared at him.

“Nothing,” Minho pressed the elevator button, “I gotta go get my stuff ready before the meetings starts. I’ll see you guys there.”

Jessica sighed and walked inside the elevator with Minho, “You never sent an email huh?”

“Not at all,” Minho crossed his arms and looked at the elevator sides. When the door closed, he sighed. “I’m just trying to make it in this small little firm. There’s been rumors, you know.”

“What kind of rumors?” Jessica asked as she studied her notes.

“Some hospital wants us to be their team of lawyers or representers or something like that.” Minho shrugged, “I’m just worried for my job. I wouldn’t mind being transferred though.”

“Transfer?” Jessica looked at him in a panic. 

“Yeah. Apparently, an American hospital from Seattle bought this company. I think they’re coming here to Korea and picked us.”

“Why us?”

He shrugged, “Beats me. I guess we’re gonna be part of the law suit side of this hospital. Apparently they’re expanding and moving a hospital here in Seoul. Since we have the most diverse lawyers who know multiple languages, it made sense for that to happen.”

“How do you know all this?”

Ding.

The elevator doors opened.

“People talk, Jung. Might as well get used to it.” He walked out of the doors and headed for his office space on the second floor.

“What does that even mean?” Jessica followed him to his office. “Does that mean there’ll be doctors coming in and out throughout the day?”

“I think we go to them. We still need office space. I doubt Boss is gonna give this sweet pad up just so we can go to a depressing hospital everyday. Besides, it makes sense.”

“I’m so confused.”

“Plus, I hear that someone just got hired to join our team.”

“Who?”

“Some chick,” Minho waved his had. “That’s all I know.”

“How the hell do you know all these things?”

“People talk.” He repeated on last time and closed the door on Jessica’s face.

“I need a drink.” She sighed and walked to her office space.

— — — — —

“So when were you planning on telling us about this?” Sooyoung slammed the door shut and crossed her arms.

“What are you talking about?” Yuri looked at Sooyoung and then at Tiffany.

“The merge,” Sooyoung glared in Tiffany’s direction. “Why did you give up your entire practice to work at some hospital?”

“Who ever said that I was giving up my practice?” Tiffany glared at her friend, “They gave me an offer and I took it. You don’t understand, huh?”

Sooyoung crossed her arms, “It would help if you actually tried talking to us about this first.”

“They told me that if my lawyers and assistants worked for the hospital, not only will we get the same medical benefits, but they’re also paying for this firm. It was going to take me years to actually give these people health benefits, let alone a stable income and job.” Tiffany spat. “This was an opportunity for me to prove to my father that I’m not wasting my time here in Korea. I’m not being selfish when I tell you that this was for my workers. I’m responsible for these people and working for a hospital means that there will be medical cases left and right, but we also get cases other than medical ones. This will help the lawyers to be more well-rounded, as well as give them hands on learning experience on what it is like working for the general public. Working there also means, higher pay. Do you understand now?” Sooyoung gulped and nodded. “Now if you’ll excuse me,” Tiffany started to gather her things, “I have a meeting with the Chief of the Hospital.”

“You can’t run away from this, Ppany!”

“Watch me!”

— — — — —

“Afternoon,” Ailee smiled as she walked through the front double doors. “Where’s Boss?”

“She went to go have a meeting at some hospital.” Minho waved her away as he continued to type on his laptop.

“Do you know which hospital?” Ailee barged into his office and made herself comfortable.

“What?”

“Is it the new hospital from America?” She grinned. “There’s been some talk that her ex-boyrfriend’s something’s dad or family or whatever moved the hospital to Korea because they were expanding. Is it that one?”

“Which one?” Jessica suddenly appeared at the door, “Is it really that one?”

“Didn’t we just have this conversation, Jung?” Minho sighed and rubbed his cheek. “I know just as much as you two, nosies. Why does it matter anyway? We’re still gonna have a job.”

“But we might get more pay, ya know?” Jessica grinned.

“We just started yesterday, I doubt we’re gonna get higher way. We’re at the bottom of the food chain. We won’t get a raise for another year tops.”

“He’s right,” Amber crossed her arms and stood at the door.

“Why are you all crowding in my office?” Minho annoyingly stated.

“Is it really true?” Amber asked.

“We know just as much as you do.” Ailee shrugged. 

“How are they gonna do that?” Jessica asked. “There’s technically 8 employees, 9 including Boss.”

“I say she’s doing this because she owes someone a few favors.” Minho leaned against his chair.

“Do people really take favors to that kind of extreme?” Ailee bit her bottom lip.

“What if she’s giving her position up as Boss?” Minho snapped his fingers.

“You seriously think that Boss is gonna give that position up without a fight?” Amber raised an eyebrow.

“If you owe someone enough favors, yeah.” Ailee nodded.

“You think they’re gonna start hiring more lawyers?” Jessica asked.

“Beats me,” Amber shrugged. “All I know is that we have a meeting in a couple of hours with Boss and I need to prep.”

“I’ll help you prep since I’ll be with you in this case anyway.” Jessica started walking with Amber.

“You can’t run away from this, Ppany!” Sooyoung’s voice could be heard on the entire floor.

“Watch me!” Tiffany’s voice rang shortly after. Her furious figure could be heard stomping on the wooden floor boards. She huffed a breath and waited for the elevator to get to the floor.

Jessica and Amber were paralyzed. They didn’t know what to do. They needed to take the elevator, but they also didn’t want to invade their new boss’ privacy. Especially not after what they had just heard.

“Nice day today, huh?” Amber chuckled and rocked back and forth on her feet. Jessica gave her a horrified look. “It’s a great day to be alive and well, isn’t that right, Jung?”

“Y-yeah?” Jessica answered. The other woman gave her a look of encouragement. “Yeah, it sure it. Yep. Great day to be alive and well, healthy, even.”

Ding.

Tiffany stood in the rear of the elevator while Jessica and Amber stood a little bit in front of her.

“What are you gonna do on this fine day, Jung?”

“Well, Liu,” Jessica started, “I think that I’m gonna go over the email you sent me and make sure that everything is in proper order for when we go to our meeting this afternoon.”

Tiffany lowered her head and tried not to crack a smile at the pathetic attempt to make things less awkward on the elevator ride.

Ding.

“Look at that!” Jessica grinned in glee. “We made it.”

Amber grabbed Jessica’s arm and made a run for it, “I think that went better than we expected, right?”

Jessica nodded, “Right.”

“Let’s go get some coffee before this meeting starts. We can compare notes and see what to do from there.”

“Right.” Jessica looked back and saw a smiling Tiffany with a hand on her hip.