3:38 pm.

A thick, red substance drips from the ball point of the pen I had been using for the past 7 or so hours. It’s quite amusing to see it still working with the amount of writing I had to do for today. I thought the meetings were never going to end and I was going to run out of ink to write with. I only had half left from the start of this morning, now it’s gone and pooped red ink all over my desk.

Whose idea was it to book 5 meetings on the same day? They never went through me, and they should have. I am Lee freaking Sunny, and there’s nothing that goes on in this workplace that I don’t know. At least that was how it was supposed to be, until some freaking douche bag decided, “hey 5 meetings, that’s a breeze!”

God, my wrists are killing me.

I look up to the clock. A minute has passed. Great.

21 minutes till the end of my shift. I lean against the backrest of my chair. It was one of the plus working in this company, the ergonomic chairs. They didn’t skimp on these bad boys. I’m actually tempted to bring one of them home. Maybe I could call up Taengoo and get her to bring that old pick-up down to the parking lot.

Nah, too much work. And anyway, people might wonder where I was going with it as the only way to get to the parking area is through the stairwell. Why couldn’t the architect, or was it the engineer, attach the elevator to the parking area like in a normal building, instead of making another stairway going down to the parking area at the complete opposite of the lifts?

19 minutes till the end of the shift.

I make a quick rundown of the notes I’ve jotted down from the meetings that I’ve transferred into a word document. I’ve done the spell checks and grammar checks, thank God for the internet and auto-correct, all that was left was to send it to the big boss.

15 minutes.

I go do my rounds, checking up on the daily reports and progress or anyone that needed help. I check my phone for any missed calls or messages. Damn. 7% battery power left. No alerts though, which if fine by me. That just means my social schedule is clear of the night. Finally, I can have non-stop gaming with watchdogs 2. I’ve barely gone through the beginning of the game with Tiffany and Sooyoung constantly calling for a girl’s night out or dinner. For some reason, I can’t shake the feeling that someone’s going to ruin my planned non-stop playing this evening.

Well.. Tiffany is out of town. Sooyoung has this charity thing going on tonight.. Taeyeon’s probably going to shut herself in her house with Tiffany away. Maybe I’m just overthinking this. It’s been a while since the last time I’ve had an uninterrupted night.

I should probably swing by for some Chinese on the way home. Or KFC. I miss chicken.

A phone rings from the cubicle to my right. I glance over the small division to see Bob hunched over his seat, unresponsive of the ringing phone. Poor Bob, all tuckered out. I reach over him, grabbing the phone from its cradle, softly patting Bob’s back.

“Hello, sorry Bob’s a little pre-occupied right now, can I take a message?” I say into the receiver. Aren’t I such a good manager?

“Is he?” The phone crackles with the deep baritone of the caller’s voice. “I’m sorry, I thought he would be finished right about now.” The caller mumbles something incomprehensible for a few seconds then coughs to clear his throat. “Could you tell him Peter called, and that I think I found the old books he was looking for.”

“Sure thing.” I chirp. “Anything else you want to pass on?”

“No. That’s it. Thank you.”

“Okay. I’ll be sure to pass it on.” I say, pressing the call end button. Well, that’s one good Samaritan act I can put up my extremely short list. I write down a short message on a post-it and stuck it on Bob’s computer monitor. There were a few liquid splatters on the monitor. Bob needed to clean his up before the end of the day.

I’ll give him a few more minutes of rest before I wake him up.

9 minutes.

I step out of my office, capping and slipping my trusty pen into my back pocket. Who knows when I’m going to need them. As they say, better be prepared.

I say my hello to Susan, the secretary, on my way to the boss’s office. Susan was a lovely girl. A little too y with the boys, with her bleached blond hair, tied a bit too tight and needed to fix a few top buttons on her shirt. I’m pretty sure she had a job. I don’t remember them being that large on the first week of her working here. She’s got to have a sugar daddy under her eye-blinding, neon colored, insanely fake, long nails. Who else would have paid for her job and that Louis Viton bag she kept swinging around like a trophy? I can’t even count the times the thought of throwing or lighting that bag on fire had crossed my mind. It’s an overpriced bag, who cares if it’s the latest edition when everyone else is too busy working their off to pay off debts, rents, and bills. Scratch the lovely part, Susan is just the typical secretary in a drama show. I don’t even know what she does here except answering calls for the CEO. I pretty much do everything that she’s supposed to do. Ah, whatever. I’m not the one paying her anyway.

Susan doesn’t say hello back, doesn’t even lift her head from whatever it was she was looking for under the table. Whatever, Susan.

Pushing the door open I see the big boss reclined on his seat. The lights in the office are out but the blinds have been drawn to let the natural light in. The sun was setting so the bright orange glare behind him cast his face in the dark. Very mobster-esque. The boss always did rave about things like the God Father. Regardless, it is still a little unnerving seeing this kind of scene in real life.

“Hey, boss. I’ve done the background check on all 5 businesses that you asked for. I’ve put them all in the drop box along with the report from today’s meetings. I’ll have everyone pack up and go home.” I don’t wait for his answer. The poor man is in the middle of a huge argument with his wife. He’s been a little moody for a while, shouting at his employees when something bad happens.

With only a few minutes left I fix my table and shut off my computer. Everything has a place and I make sure I put them back. I like it when my bench is clean and organized, in the long run, I won’t have to go crazy looking for things.

Whistling a merry tune I carefully walk past the rows of cubicles, careful not to slip on the sticky floor. There were splashes of red liquid everywhere like someone had accidentally dumped the container of cool-aid from the meeting. I feel for the janitor when he gets up to this floor. We are a mess today.

The elevator dings and the metal doors part. A guy stands in the middle, completely focused on the phone in his hand. I stand beside him, reaching for my own phone to check for notifications. Still nothing. I guess it’s a watch dogs 2 marathon for me this evening.

“Can you believe it?” The guy suddenly asks as soon as the doors close.

“Sorry, what?” I ask him.

He looks up from his phone shaking his head. “Sorry, I was talking to.. Oh my God! Are you alright?”

His eyes widen and he takes a step forward. His eyes fall over my body and then he takes wary a step back. The hand holding his phone shakes and his face turn a ghastly pale color. He starts breathing loudly through his mouth and his body starts shaking like a leaf.

“I’m alright. Are you?” I take a step forward. He takes another step back, his back flattening against the metal wall.

“I.. I.. I… please.. I’ve got kids.” His voice shakes. What a weird man.

“That’s nice.” I reach for my red pen, look up to check our descent. “You know what? I think a red shirt would suit you a lot better with that black jacket.” I smile at the trembling man.

My phone rings at a red light. Fishing it out of my pocket I swipe for the green icon and hold the phone up to my face. “Hello? Sunny speaking.”

“Oh God! Sunny-ah? Where are you?” I pull the phone away from my ears, cringing at the loud voice shouting through my receiver.

“Soo? Will you quit shouting? I’m going to go deaf around you and Fany.”

“Sunny-ah, where are you? Are you alright? Are you hurt?” Her loud voice comes blasting from the receiver, completely ignoring my berating.

“What is this all about Soo? I’m at the intersection near my house.”

“Really? Good.” I hear her sigh from the other end. “That’s good. Sunny-ah, do you need me to come to your place?”

“Why would I need you to come to my place?”

“Didn’t you hear?”

“Hear what? Soo, can you please finish your sentences. I really shouldn’t be answering my phone right now. I’m behind the wheel.”

“In fact,” I cut her off “I should put the phone down. I’m running out of battery anyway and I really don’t want to be fined by the police.”

“Wait Sunny! Your work office was... God, everyone in your place is- bleep”

“Soo?” I pull the phone from my ear. The battery was completely drained. Oh well, at least I won’t have to listen to Sooyoung’s loud voice.

Rounding my flat I roll up to a neat stop at my parking spot. I don’t take too long outside, the stickiness around my skin is almost unbearable. I needed a good hot shower to take the grime off my body, and also the sticky red substance that has been leaking out of my pen. I should probably buy a new one. And I should just burn the clothes I wore today. My attire was drenched in red and I don’t think I have a good enough laundry soap to take out the stain from my white shirt.

I turn to my favourite radio station before I step into the shower. Today was a tiring day.

‘-el says 10 casualties. The bodies are being loaded up to the back of the emergency vehicle for transport to the mortuary for further forensic study. This may have been one of the largest mass murders in history. And as frightening as it already is, sources have also stated that the suspects’ weapon of choice is a ball point pen. Police are investigating the scene, looking for more clues to bring light onto these senseless killings. This is Kirk Fletcher reporting live.’