Wendy was right when people started asking about Tiffany. Although, she didn’t really mind getting bombarded so much, except for one guy who asked for Tiffany’s number. She could already feel Tiffany’s fame, and well Tiffany really deserved it. So it didn’t surprise her when Irene was also curious.

"Wendy...um..." Irene hesitated.

The sight of Irene fumbling with her fingers and timidly unable to look up at her was bizarre yet compelling. It was almost hysterical like their roles had been switched.

So adorable. It was a lot harder to not be captivated by Irene.

"Yes Miss Bae?"

"I saw you with Tiffany last week." Irene bit her lips and her voice was a little higher pitch than usual, as if she’s embarrassed admitting to being a fan. Or perhaps she was confronted for something else, either way, Wendy held back a smile.

"She's my sister." Irene finally looked up at her and nodded like she’s absorbing the information. "Are you a fan?" Wendy asked inquisitively.

Catching Irene off guard, her voice was only a bit louder than a whisper. "Ah... I like her."

“Oh” Wendy wasn’t expecting Irene to directly admit her admiration for Tiffany. Should she say thank you? It wasn’t like it’s a compliment toward her.

Irene must’ve mistaken Wendy’s silence for something else as she started explaining. Wendy could see the worried look and the frantic in her voice.

“I mean I like her in the drama. Not more than that. I’m not really crazy for her like that.”

Wendy was going to say, ‘That’s fine’ but she decided to test the water just for her own purpose. Instead, she said in a dejected tone. "I guess you like her more."

Wendy hid the mischievous smile and anticipated how Irene defended herself, as if she set up a trap for her to confess.

"No! I-I...um." Wendy watched as the words choked up in , prolonging her answer. Irene looked elsewhere while her face grew red rapidly, she attempted to hide them by face palming and reprimanding herself. Wendy wished she knew some ways to encourage her without looking obvious.

"Sorry. I have to be somewhere." Abruptly, Irene walked passed her and escaped, reminiscing what Wendy had done before. Wendy’s eyes followed her retrieving form and a small smile finally broke out, relishing Irene’s freak a little too much.

---

Seulgi found the safety training held every few month a bit too redundant. Last time, it was a lecture about bullying and harassment. Today’s topic was about protecting the environment. The issue wasn’t new to her as she probably heard it thousands of time.

It sort of felt like being in college again, she would stare in space pretending that she was paying attention. Joy and Yeri would be quietly playing in their antics. Then Wendy would be the active participant and answer questions. The presenter stood in the front of the wide meeting room with the PowerPoint slides projecting on the big white screen.

“When you are finished with your lunch or snacks, please follow the signs and throw them in the garbage or recycling according to what the picture shows you.” The presenter pointed at the picture of plastics bottles, food, glass, and etc. that were supposed to go into their respective trash bin.

“When you are recycling, please ensure all the liquids and foods are empty before you throw them out. We are unable to recycle them if there are still foods inside.” He continued.

Yeri raised her hand indicating a question to be asked.

“Why can’t we just give the remaining to the homeless? That way we aren’t really wasting.”

“Uh that’s disgusting. Who would want to eat your sandwich that you bit into and then thrown into the trash?” Joy sounded repulsed at the image of it.

“Actually, back in Canada and America, they have organizations where they actually reuse and resell thrown out food from restaurants. It’s pretty clever.” Wendy said.

The presenter smiled, appreciating Wendy’s contribution like she was a teacher’s pet. “Ah yes. I think Korea is also starting something similar to that.”

“Wait really? What if the food is rotten or infected?” Yeri looked puzzled.

“They check and clean them. They’re not actually using somebody’s leftover dinner. A lot of restaurants throw away ingredients that haven’t expired and people would take them and sort it out.”

Seulgi found the fact interesting, although, she’s not sure if she’d be comfortable being offered food when it had been in the same trash with other dirty garbage.

Somewhere behind them, another guy asked. “So we can’t sue them if we found a nail in our meal?” Then Sungjae who was beside him spoke up.

“No. The whole concept is to reuse them. So just spit out and find a broken door then nail it back in.”

The room erupted with laughter. Everything that Sungjae said instantly became funny and she had no idea how he did it.

The presenter started to conclude the topic and now Seulgi felt more alive after the training was done. Let’s just say Seulgi didn’t really enjoy learning in school so much, but somehow managed to get good grades. The crowd exit the room back to their designated cubicles.

Joy linked their arms together and whispered. “Yo, do you know if this Sungjae guy is a creep?”

Seulgi gave her a brief confused face. “No. He’s nice. Why?”

“I promised him to go on the date if he lets me in on the email. I’m not sure if this is a trick.”

Seulgi was surprised how easily Joy gave into the deal, but Sungjae didn’t seem like a playboy. But she got to admit that was a smooth move. Although he wasn’t the leader of the whole system, but she was close enough.

“Go for it. Let me know if you need emergency rescue from your date.”

“You better have your phone with you. I don’t want to get stuck in an awkward situation.”

“What are you girls whispering?” Yeri said from behind, which also resulted in getting Wendy’s attention.

“Nothing.” Joy lied.

Seulgi felt guilty that she couldn’t let the girls in on this apparently top secret club. Joy non-stop investigation led her somewhere. Yeri was also trying to get in on this and Wendy…well, she’s just clueless. She didn’t know why such club existed. The easiest solution could’ve been ordering a larger quantity of food, but seemed like everything was on a tight budget.

Seulgi heard an email notification on her phone and checked it quickly.

Someone ordered fried chicken in the lunchroom. Come by and get some J
-Onew

---

Wendy was 80% sure Irene liked her. Their constant eye contacts were no longer coincidental and became more significant. The other 20% was just being cautious around her.

So now what?

At this point Wendy’s completely lost what to do with her crush. This whole experience had been new for her. Of course she had crushes in her life before, but they were more unrequited. So when she discovered that their feelings were mutual, well almost, the warmth spread all over her chest making her thrilled. Influencing her to express them through music and singing to upbeat love songs.

So this must be what love felt like.

After surrendering her thoughts to her desires, she decided to follow a particular advice and go for it because apparently it was her ‘fate’, but she’s still skeptical about it.

Go big or go home. However, the whole wooing thing was all too foreign to her.

Do I just ask her to a movie? Isn’t that what everyone does?

Frustrated with her lack of experiences, she revisited some of the corny romance movies for ‘education’ purposes, but found herself cringing. What’s with the room decorations and flower pedals? They really went all out and it all seemed too unrealistic to her. At least she thought coffee dates were acceptable. So no more movies, she’s just left with her awkward self now.

Amber and Tiffany gave her a few advices and they all pretty much ended with “just ask her”.

Wendy was a little shy to go for a direct method. After all, Irene was her boss and it took some balls to even approach her. Instead, she relied on the timing and when it felt right, it’d happen. That’s how fate worked right? She was going to ride on her emotions and let it act on its own.

Actually that was a bad idea.

Wendy was consumed with anger as she stood a table away from a rowdy bunch that she would label as ‘haters’.

“Miss Bae is good for nothing. She’s just showing off her expensive clothes every time she shows up on our floor. It’s so annoying.”

“She only treats Yeri and Wendy nice. That’s just so bull.”

“They’re bunch of kiss-.”

“I can’t stand her. She thinks she’s all high and mighty while we’re some working ant.”

Wendy had thousands of words loaded and ready to spit at them. The ignorance overshadowed them as they fail to realize that Wendy was standing beside them. Wendy had never seen the group of girls in her life, except for one of them sitting by the window. She contemplated in confronting them or bring out Joy so she can roast them all. However, being an adult, she bit her lips and held her rage inside while resisting the temptation.

Wendy one shot the rest of her distasteful coffee and dump the cup into the trash. Grimly, she walked out with heavy steps.

Wendy was always known to be the nice girl with full of optimisms. But when she’s upset, she stayed mad for another couple of hours before cooling down.

It got to the point where she couldn’t focus on her work and fumed in her chair while developing many ways to cuss.

They can all burn to hell!

Seulgi, Yeri and Joy sort of backed off when they sense something off about Wendy, albeit giving her best fake smile. Hence, she ended up getting pulled by Seulgi into the washroom which they had to check to see if it was empty before asking what’s wrong. Wendy left out Irene’s part, but she told Seulgi and she managed to calm her a bit.

It was a good thing she did because she had a next meeting with Irene to brainstorm a strategic plan. Her anger would’ve done something she’d regret and that’s not how she wanted to start with Irene.

“If the actual numbers show this then there’s a defect inside the system…” Irene was focused on the number projected on the screen.

They were inside the small meeting room alone, ignoring the strained between them. They still haven’t reconciled ever since Irene distanced from her so things were going to be awkward afterwards. Irene was fixated on the business purpose meanwhile Wendy dozed off.

Wendy stared at Irene the whole time, barely concentrating. She had the dire to prove how everyone was mistaken about Irene, that she’s more than a stuck up boss. That Miss Bae was passionate and phenomenal individual ever existed (that might be exaggerated but to her it was true). So she didn’t deserve any derogatory comments.

However, the longer she stared, the pent up temper she had weaken. Irene had this calming presence that slowly diminished her anger, no longer harbouring ferocious cogitations. She inferred it was the effect of having a crush.

Wendy finally snapped out of it when Irene gave a confused look at her. She prompted a response before Irene could suspect anything.

“The numbers in the prior years…”

She smoothly recovered as the meeting went on. They began wrapping up and Wendy could feel the elephant in the room. It almost stifled the words in but she was determined to change that.

When Irene was about the leave, Wendy spoke.

“Miss Bae.”

“Yes?”

Say something. Anything.

“You look beautiful.”

Wait what? She was supposed to compliment on Irene’s dedication and hard work. Not freaking flirt with her, not yet at least. The unexpected declaration conjured memories of Wendy’s last unplanned confession leaving her dumbfounded again. She didn’t understand why Irene had the ability to draw out her feelings.

Irene blinked a couple of times before striding up to her with an arrogant smile and stopped in front of her. Wendy finch a little when Irene’s hands went up to her collar shirt and pulling it to straighten the soft material.

“Would you like to have dinner with me?” Irene asked with certain mixed with a bit of seduction in her voice.

Wendy blushed deeply and lowered her head shyly, revealing how much Irene affected her.

“Sure.”

Irene’s index finger dragged across her collar bone to Wendy’s top button and slightly pressed against it. Then with confidence, she walked away taking all of Wendy’s breath.

---

Sitting beside Wendy granted Seulgi the privilege to observe her. She thought Wendy was having severe mood swings and maybe she’s overly sensitive today, you know…the time of the month. Wendy emitted such a negative energy around them this morning and now she was smiling to herself. She knew the reason behind the foul mood, but Wendy did a 180 in less than an hour which seemed alarming.

Seulgi wanted to ask, but she didn’t want to ruin the cheerful spirit, maybe later when Wendy was emotionally stable.

Although it wasn’t hard to read Wendy when her face was like an open book. Those eyebrows of hers were always crooking and craning and Wendy was so obvious with them. Something must’ve happened during the meeting with Miss Bae that elicited Wendy’s jolliness.

Seulgi was definitely not oblivious as they thought she would be.

She already had speculations about them for a while, two weeks ago to be specific. She stopped the teasing about the rumours and actually watched the girl. She was respectable enough to leave Wendy alone. Besides, she didn’t want to be the insensitive and say something that might hurt the girl.

It took her a while to notice because she was always distracted by someone.

She felt a small impact on the back of her head and the offending object thudded to the ground. A small crumpled paper lay underneath her chair and she turn to see Joy fake ogling at her.

“Stop being greasy Joy.”

Yeri who also was attracted to mischief spun around with a bright look on her face.

“You looking fine today, love.” Joy mockingly wriggled her eyebrow, purposely making her uncomfortable.

“Urk. You make me sick.”

“Don’t lie. You love me.”

“I’d rather eat grass.”

Yeri giggled slightly, amused with the scene. “Unnie, you should try to flirt back.”

Wendy suddenly spun her chair intrigued by the conversation.

“How?”

“Try a pick up line.” Seulgi pensively thought of one, but the execution came out robotic.

“D-did it hurt? When you fell from- UGH I can’t.” She cringed.

“You know, pretty girls with the inability to speak are just my type.” Joy said huskily. Yeri and Wendy laughed at the Joy’s sarcasm.

Seulgi rolled her eyes. “What do you want?”

“A romantic candle lit dinner with just the two of us. Then as I drive you to my place, we’re going to hold hands in the car, but that might be a safety precaution so only on red lights.” Seulgi glared at Joy’s persisting travesty.

“I thought that’s what you’re supposed to do that on your actual date.”

“You have a date?” Yeri asked. Joy’s cheeky face momentary transformed into a warning look and sent an aggressive eye signal toward Seulgi.

Oh this was to be a secretive deal between them.

“JK, my mom invited you over for dinner tonight.” Joy expertly avoided the question.

 “Okay, can we drop by my place so I can change?”

“Fine.”

Yeri started conversing and Seulgi spared a glanced toward Wendy.

Wendy remained relax with a slight smile on her face and Seulgi was relieved, albeit being awfully quiet. She didn’t probe into it and let Wendy relish in whatever made the smile stuck on her face.

---

Wendy received her first text message from Irene and she’s grinning like crazy. Like the type where she wanted to scream and jump on her bed, but restrained her muscles because she was still in the office. Who cared if the ecstasy was only acceptable for high school behaviour, she was going to sit in her bliss. That was literately what ran through her mind the whole day, forgetting the infuriating event that happened earlier.

She didn’t know who initiated what but she was glad Irene had asked first. Otherwise, she would’ve been a horrible flirt and just fail miserably. Probably would’ve re-enact Seulgi’s awkward pick up line which be painful to watch. 

The nervousness grew as the minutes passed and work hours never came by so slowly. She had a hard time keeping still in her seat. When work did finished, she sort of wanted to chicken out but that would’ve been rude.

Forcing up a courage, she pressed the up button by the elevator and waited.

“You’re going up Wendy?” Yeri’s voice startled her.

Oh , she had completely forgotten about Yeri. Of course Yeri was going to be there, she was her ride. Caught like she was stealing cookies, she rendered speechless.

Yeri dawned a confuse look on her face because going up meant to the top floor where Irene’s office was located. Wendy could hear the gear operating in her head and the nervous look on Wendy’s face confirmed it. Then Yeri let out a wide smirk.

“No freaking way!” Yeri loudly squealed and Wendy had to cover before she drew more attention.

With the ring of the elevator saving her, she dragged Yeri inside. She let Yeri scream in a frenzy excitement.

“I knew it. I knew it. I knew it!”

When they got to the top floor, Wendy finally spoke.

“Oh my god. Shut up. You’re making me nervous.”

“AHHH. You’re so cute Wendy-unnie. You two definitely match.”

They both entered Irene’s office with Wendy trailing behind Yeri turning shy. Wendy couldn’t tell if Irene was happy to see her as she remained nonchalant, maybe because her sister was here.

“I have to drop Yeri off before we go for dinner if you don’t mind.” Irene picked up her purse and ready to leave.

“Of course not.”

Wendy sat in the back seat of the car and Yeri kept turning around and giving her the teasing smile. Her eyes were glued to the window trying her best to ignore her.

Yeri started texting Wendy a list of things Irene disliked.

Don’t feed her chicken.
Don’t startle her too much.
Don’t be the gentlemanly type and pull out a chair for her. She hates that.
Don’t ask anything about internet trends, she doesn’t have a clue about them.
Don’t bring her to high places, she gets scared. Actually do that! And tell me how it goes.

Dear lord, Irene seemed hard to please. Although she found the last one quite ironic since her office was on the top floor. And chicken? She never heard anyone having allergies or any dislike with chicken. Even vegetarians admit that chicken taste amazing (before they became vegetarians).

Actually she needed Yeri’s affirmation to calm herself.

It wasn’t like this was the first time she had dinner with Irene, but one thing she knew for sure was to stay away from alcohol.

After Yeri left, Wendy took the shot gun seat beside Irene and it felt different from the other times she was alone with Irene. Wendy couldn’t tear her eyes away from Irene’s side profile.

Like a mistletoe that hung between them, it immensely drew them together but none wanting to cross the border.

Irene felt her stares and chuckled. “You’re making me nervous.”

Wendy turned her head away and embarrassed. “Sorry.”

Irene took her to another restaurant which wasn’t too fancy. Wendy liked that Irene was down to earth because she didn’t need a luxury five star restaurant to be swoon by Irene. Their conversation carried on naturally with occasional laughter. The dinner wasn’t anything different from the other times except she didn’t see her as a boss but a potential lover instead.
 

TBC