Yoomi folded her umbrella as she stepped into the office building. It was bad enough that today’s Monday, but the gloomy weather just added on to her misery. Looking around, she could see her colleagues feeling the same, with everyone looking depressed to be back at work.

 

Stepping into the lift, she met one of her colleagues in her department. Yoomi nodded at her and gave a polite smile. However, the moment that colleague met her eyes, the first thing that came out of was, “Hey Yoomi. Have you finished the report I gave you yesterday?”

 

Well, what was she expecting to hear? Yoomi could only resent her naiveness for thinking that the colleague wanted to engage in a friendly conversation with her.

 

“Yeah, I’ll pass it to you later! So how was your weekend?” She tried to sound as enthusiastic as possible. Unfortunately, her excitement did not seem to rub off her colleague.

 

“Good.” She barely gave a smile to Yoomi. And no thank you either. She added in her head.

 

She was used to this kind of treatment by now. By some form of miracle, everyone in her department seemed to really hate her. Or perhaps she was just unlucky that her department was full of cold people. Or maybe it was her timid personality at work. Whatever the reason was, she was still hopeful when any of her colleagues approached her, even if their motive was to dump their work on her.

 

Walking into her department, she almost collided with the poster girl of their department.

 

“Hey, watch where you are going!” The poster girl warned. Yoomi almost rolled her eyes. It wasn’t even her fault to begin with.

 

“Aren’t you going to apologize?” The girl glared at her, hands on her hips. Now, this was just plain ridiculous. Why should she apologize when it’s the girl’s fault for running in the office? Keep calm, Lee Yoomi. You shouldn’t flare up in the office. Not when you have stayed low for so long.

 

“What’s going on here?” Manager Yoo came over, hearing the commotion.

 

The poster girl took the chance to get the manager on her side. “Manager Yoo… I didn’t know the seniors here were so rude. She bumped into me earlier on and didn’t want to apologize.” She ended off with a fake sob, hoping to garner more sympathy from the manager.

 

“That’s not true…” Yoomi opened to protest, but it was too late. Manager Yoo seemed to have taken the junior’s side.

 

“Lee Yoomi, apologize to Soojung now! I can’t have rude employees in my department.” He commanded.

 

So her name’s Soojung. Such a pretty name, but too bad her personality’s nasty. Yoomi thought to herself. She wasn’t present on Soojung’s first day and nobody had bothered to introduce her to Yoomi either after that day. But Yoomi soon realized Soojung’s popularity in the office, especially among the males, and hence the nickname - poster girl.

 

Manager Yoo took Yoomi’s silence as defiance and barked, “Lee Yoomi! Are you going to apologize or not?”

 

This definitely shook Yoomi out of her trance. She meekly apologized to Soojung, with the latter giving her a “Hmph!” before strutting out of the office. Manager Yoo, pleased that the matter had been settled, gave her a warning look before going back to his office.

 

Yoomi sighed. She couldn’t believe how difficult it was to lie low in the office. How much more could she tolerate?

 

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

 

Myungsoo was hard at work arranging the props for the photoshoot later when a familiar voice called out to him.

 

“Myungsoo! Son, why on earth are you doing this to yourself?”

 

Whipping his head