A long day, it was.

Aside from her fist meeting with Dispatch, Jiwon didn’t really do much but somehow, she felt exhausted. Mentally weak might be the exact term to be used. Her excitement in the morning was still crystal clear in her mind yet all of it has vanished because of one single reason – her first scoop, obviously.  She badly wanted to back out but it would leave her a very bad impression to the eyes of the company. She didn’t want to be that demanding employee just because of her experience and background, she wants to do this fair and square. She got into her new condominium and closed the door behind her, leaning on it for a while.

It was a mess.

The whole place is still a big chunk of mess, boxes and some luggage everywhere. It’s only been two weeks since they arrived and a week since they got the place. For the first week, they had to stay in a hotel while they wait for all their boxed stuff to be delivered, coming straight from the States. It wasn’t a lot, three large boxes and three small ones. Their new couch set just arrived yesterday and they haven’t even assembled it yet. They also got a new TV set, end tables and coffee tables and some more necessary furniture.

But for the past two weeks, all they’ve been doing was fix all their especially the job-related ones.

She was lucky enough to get the offer from Dispatch even before she arrives in Korea.

“Ugh, I really need to start unpacking.” She groaned before lazily stomping her feet towards the living room. “Shoes. . . extra—what the did I put in extra, I can’t remember.” She read the labels on the boxes in confusion. “And then, his music .” She read one more box before going in for the small boxes instead. She grabbed a cutter from her bag and started opening the small boxes.  Slumping right on the floor, she opened each box while peeking at them. They were just some figurines and house display that she didn’t want to leave or sell back in the States, they were all bought by her late Aunt Hayoung, she was no way she was letting them go.

Aunt Hayoung bravely fought cancer two years ago, it was so sudden and unexpected. She died of complications only a few months after they found out about the illness, it was acute and had rapidly spread across her body. Her death will always be one of the saddest parts of Jiwon’s life, she wasn’t even given enough time to be with her. It came out so suddenly and she had always regretted the time she had wasted. At that time, she was a fresh graduate and was just starting as an intern in Chatter Tales. The bottom line is that it seems like her aunt left just when she was starting with the real adult life, it was hard for her. The adjustments, the process of maturing and whatnot – she had to face all of those without her. At the same time, she was grieving as well.

She sighed and grabbed a weird-looking, kind of distorted vase. She removed the bubble wrap from it quickly before placing it gently down the floor. It was made by her aunt. There was a time where Aunt Hayoung got interested in pottery for a short period of time and she tried going to classes as a hobby, it was her first work but she eventually gave up realizing how hard it was for her. Jiwon laughed at that memory, she could still hear her aunt’s laughter when she was telling her that she was wrong for thinking it was fun.

She tried to brush off all of the thoughts in her head so she could proceed on working on the boxes. She successfully finished off the first box and went to the second. “Ah!” She yelped when she saw one broken figurine. It was like a souvenir when they had a vacation in Hawaii, it’s a wooden sculpture of a Hawaiian dancer. The head got chopped off, probably because another stuff was on top of it. “What the , it had a bubble wrap.” She hissed while slamming it down the floor out of frustration.

She sulkily moved on to the other things inside the box and she came across an old wallet of hers. “Oh, that’s random.” She chuckled before taking it out. She must have thrown it in the box when she was packing. “Wow.” She cooed while opening the wallet, it was her wallet when she was in high school. Her shoulders relaxed down while staring at it. There was nothing to remind her about her past but looking at the wallet still made every memory she had back in high school nostalgic, including that particular past. She kept the wallet as a keepsake of her high school life.

But seeing it right now didn’t help on the thought she’s been trying to brush off her mind for the past two hours.

Byun Baekhyun. And~ the name is back again.

“Ugh, what do I do with it now.” She began groaning like a sulky kid while messing her hair up. She made an abrupt stop when she heard the door beep indicating someone had entered. She sat up straight again while turning to the door. “Oh, hey babe. I’m starting to unpack, maybe you could assemble the TV, I kind of want to watch some Netflix later tonight. Have you called the network provider?” She asked before looking down the boxes again.

“I did this morning, they said they’ll be coming here to set up the internet and TV on Tuesday though.”

Jiwon’s shoulder dropped in disappointment. “You mean no internet for two days? Ugh.”

She watched as her boyfriend bend down to her with a smile. “Stop sulking and tell me about your day.” He said before flopping down right beside her. She couldn’t respond for a while, the name of her ex continuously ringing in her head. “I-it was okay, I guess. Mr. Lee was really nice and welcoming although he tried to hit on me at first but anyway, I didn’t expect Dispatch was a big company. I used to think it was just some small-time business but wow, I saw some of their scoops, they’re some pretty big scandals put up.” She tried to sound as optimistic as possible.

“Wow, he hit on you? What a tard, are you sure about this job?”

Jiwon gave him a judging glare. “Yah, don’t take it too seriously. I rejected him right away and he didn’t really push it any more, he was polite.” She explained finally earning a defeated look from him. He stood up once again and walked to the kitchen, their still empty kitchen. Jiwon looked down to her lap while fiddling with some bubble wrap, popping each one of them. “H-he. . . he actually gave me a glimpse of my first scoop.” She mumbled, barely coherent enough for the guy to hear. “What is it?” He asked, as expected. Jiwon looked straight and took a deep breath before turning to her boyfriend. He was busy peeking in their fridge which only had some bottles of water and leftovers from their take-outs inside. He took out one container of leftover and put in the microwave to heat it up. Jiwon’s chest started pounding hard again as she mustered all the courage to tell him.

“Uh. . . K-kyungsoo-yah.”

He looked over to her direction while leaning on the counter, waiting for the food to be heated up. “I said. . . Mr. Lee showed me the scoop that I’ll be working on.” She repeated with uncertainty. “Oh yea, so how is it? Did they give you a good one?” He beamed. That was it, Jiwon stood up and went over to her bag that she placed at one corner, close to the door. She took out the profile folder of her future subject, Han Soojin. She doesn’t know how to tell him, she was scared that it will create conflicts.

Kyungsoo unknowingly followed her and peeked at the folder. “This is the profile of the person I’ll be working on.” She revealed before handing him the folder. She walked back to the living room in a slightly rushed way not wanting to see his reaction once he sees Baekhyun’s name in it. She moved her eyes to the side, gazing at his direction. He was starting to read it. Jiwon felt a big lump on as a wave of awkward silence walked through the whole place. “S-so?” She cut