It was finally the day of the presentation. Dahae had been working hard for this and she kept motivating herself that she would ace it. As she made her way to the conference room, she continuously memorised her lines and didn’t fail to greet her colleagues along the way with a smile on her face. Even when she arrived at the room with some of the shareholders already on their respective seats, Dahae refused to be fazed by the attention. Now that everyone including Mr. Nam was present, it was her cue to begin the presentation.

“Good morning gentlemen. I’m Jang Dahae from the finance department and I’ll be going through with you the finance report for this month.” Just like what Yoojung had advised, Dahae didn’t allow her voice to be shaken and maintain eye contact with most of the people. Even Mr. Nam was impressed by her performance. When the presentation was over, Dahae bowed to the people present as they clapped. When she thought the presentation was a success, she tripped herself as the shareholders were making their leave. Some of them were actually concerned with the lady but she rejected their help because she felt utterly embarrassed. The great presentation she had delivered was already forgotten as she let her humiliation get the better of her.

“Are you really okay?” Mr. Nam asked out of concern as he allowed Dahae to get up by herself.

“I’m okay.” She managed to fake a smile.

“Well then, I’m very proud of you! I knew you can do well for this presentation!” He complimented with a big grin on his face, his smile somehow reminded her of a father who was proud of his daughter’s achievement. However, Mr. Nam was still quite young to be a father, she thought.

“Thank you, Mr. Nam. I’ll be making my move.” Dahae respectfully bowed before leaving the conference room. Despite being praised by her superior, the small incident had scarred her pride a little. She just wished she could remove that memory forever but she knew she couldn’t. Even when Yoojung had heard the good news about the presentation, Dahae’s expression remained stoic as she kept mulling over her mistake.

“Let’s have lunch together to celebrate your success today!” Yoojung exclaimed as she got up, ready to leave when she noticed it was lunchtime already. Dahae, on the other hand, didn’t move from her seat.

“It’s okay. You can go first, I’ll just have my bread. I still got a lot of work to do.” Dahae made up of an excuse, which Yoojung easily bought.

“Such a workaholic, as usual. Alright, see you later!” And off Yoojung went to the cafeteria.

Dahae then brought her bread along before she headed to the staircase. She sat on one of the steps before she unwrapped the packaging, the sound of the tearing of the plastic resonated the hollow area. She chewed on the bread slowly, not bothered to check her wrist watch whether she would be late or not. She let her head rested on the wall beside her as she continued to munch at a slow pace. She was so preoccupied with mistake over and over again, to the point that she didn’t mind to budge from her position when the sound of the footsteps from above approaching registered in her mind.

“What are you doing here?” The male questioned when he noticed her as he stopped his tracks just a few steps behind her.

“It’s none of your business.” She didn’t make an effort to face him, for she had become too familiar with his voice to recognise who the person was.

“I know it’s none of my business, but I’m trying to be nice to you.” He then plopped down beside her, which earned a glare from Dahae as she faced him.

“Well you can just continue walking and leave me alone.” She spoke in a spiteful manner but that didn’t cause the male to waver.

“You can share your problem with me, you know that? We’re practically strangers anyway.” To be honest, Dahae was really tempted to open up but her ego got in the way. However, she really needed some channel to vent up her disappointment so that she could completely get over it. Eventually, she shared her problem after much consideration. And the man was actually listening intently to what she had said. After she had finished, it was his turn to speak.

“Accidents always happen. You can’t let that thought dominate you and make you lose your self-esteem. Nevertheless, you still did great despite your hesitance to speak in front of a large group of people so why let that one mistake ruin your day?” As soon as he had ended his speech, her mind was opened to another perspective she hadn’t thought before. She was so preoccupied with her pessimistic thoughts such that it didn’t dawn upon her that she had gotten over her fear in speaking in front of a large group of audience.

“Wow… I only realise that now. Well, thanks for making me realising that.” Dahae sincerely expressed her gratitude while he just smiled in response. When she had this conversation with him, she also realised that he wasn’t that bad after all.

“Welcome, and I guess it’s quite rude to actually call you by names so I’ll introduce myself. I’m Lee Howon, also known as Hoya.” He reached out his hand for a handshake, which Dahae willingly reciprocated it.

“I’m Jang Dahae, and I’m sorry about our previous encounters which were quite unpleasant.”

Talking to Hoya had successfully relieved her tension for a bit. As she made her way to her table, one of her colleagues called her.

“Someone is looking for you at the front desk.” Puzzled as to who would be calling her, Dahae immediately went to the location where she spotted a tall man in his late-20s who was leaning against the front desk with his back facing her. He was in his casual attire which caused her to think whether he was part of the company.

“Excuse me… are you looking for Jang Dahae?” She tapped on the male’s shoulder.

“Yes. Are you perhaps Jang Dahae?” The said lady nodded.

“Great! I was looking for you! I’m Lee Sungyeol by the way, part of the creative department.” He formally introduced himself before he explained his purpose. “I need your help during the company’s fifth anniversary party. I’ll explain more at the cafeteria.”

“But there’s only about 15 more minutes before lunchtime is over.” Dahae stated as she observed her watch.

“I’ll be quick. Come.” He started to lead the way as he didn’t take no for an answer. When they had settled on their seats, Sungyeol began giving the details.

“Nam Woohyun, your superior, is a very close friend of mine. And my friends and I have decided to pull a prank on him since he’s so confident about his relationship with his wife. You just need to ‘accidentally’ trip yourself on Woohyun, we’ll just take care of the rest.”

“But why me?” Dahae suddenly asked.

“Because you’re Dongwoo’s sister right? So I thought maybe it’ll be easier if you do it instead to prevent more misunderstanding since you’re one of our friends’ relative, and I can guarantee, you won’t be in trouble because I’ll explain everything to Woohyun when this prank is over.” Dahae was seriously contemplating on agreeing to this, because she found it absolutely absurd to start with. After much consideration, she had finally decided her choice.

“I don’t think I’m the right person you’re looking for. You should find someone else to do it.” She pushed back her seat to get up, and was about to leave when Sungyeol stopped her with a grab on her wrist.

“Please! I really need your help! You’re the perfect candidate for this, I don’t know who else to ask for!” He pleaded. “You can just regard this as someone who need assistance! You’re not that kind of person who would reject someone in need right? Especially when it was from one of your brother’s friends?” He was definitely guilt-tripping her, Dahae could sense, but it really worked on her. She couldn’t bear to ignore him when she knew there’s a possibility that she would regret it. In the end, she was wavered.

“Alright, I’ll do it. Tell me exactly what I have to do.”

A/N: Just giving you guys a heads-up, I'd finished writing the whole story BUT I'm just going to post on the weekends (which means 2 updates for a week). The weekends are the only time I can post ever since I started college a few weeks ago. :(( Anyway, hope you guys have a wonderful day ahead^^