When the team was finally assembled, Jihyun wanted to scream for the unequal round-up.  One glance at the team and it already screamed ism. How the hell was she the only woman?  She believed there must be more women signing up for the team. And she was not afraid to raise the issue the first thing in the team’s first meeting.

“I can’t help but to notice the number of women here, or lack thereof.”  Her voice was superior and all men in the room was caught off guard by her statement.  It was suddenly too quiet and the silence itself was deafening.

Jihyun wasn’t trying to pick up a fight on their very first meeting.  But, wasn’t there a company policy stating in whatever event they do, they have to make sure of the involvement of thirty percent women?  There must be something the COO or the CEO himself said regarding women inclusivity.

“Err...we go through the selection process fairly for these and-”

“I’m sorry.  May I know who you are?”

Expression unguarded, the man who sat at the end of the table facing all of them looked at her with disbelief evident on his face.  She was not sure it was because she didn’t know him or because she raised the issue of gender inequality in their first meeting. But the others only looked at each other and blinked almost stupidly, most probably wondering who he was as well.  So, she believed that most of the man did not know him as well.

“Err...Kim Junmyeon.  The director of this event,” he answered while adjusting his tie clip.  The neat hairdo, the crisp shirt, the face of a leader, of course, it was the Kim Junmyeon.

Jihyun honestly was quite amazed and felt honoured to be working with him on this event.  There was one and only Kim Junmyeon in the organization and his reputation preceded him. “So, you’re Kim Junmyeon, the one and only executive from the President slash CEO's office.  His analyst. Nice to finally meet you.”

The said man blinked once.  And then twice. He waited for a backlash from her but nothing came.  So, he decided it was safe to talk. “That’s me.”

“Right.  So, you are appointed by the CEO’s executive assistant to direct this event.  You have to be the one selecting the committee members.” Jihyun began.

Junmyeon knew that she did not intend to end the gender equality conversation when she asked him who he was.  “We selected the team fairly, based on the resumes and portfolios sent to us.”

“Right, yes.  And you’re saying that there are not many women in this organization that can actually become the committee members?  Suddenly all women who applied become less talented and therefore not eligible to become committee members? All women who applied didn’t have attractive resumes?”

Junmyeon clenched his teeth.  He honestly did not expect this kind of situation on the first day he assembled the team.  But she had dropped the bomb and right now the other men were also wondering if the selection was made unfairly.  Except for one man who Junmyeon knew very well. He was quite small but have big eyes, and he looked very bored by the conversation.

“Junmyeon said we were selected fairly.  Can we move on to the introduction?” the bored man asked.

“I’m sorry.  But, who are you?” Jihyun asked, quite irritated that her momentum was disrupted.

“Kyungsoo.  Do Kyungsoo.  HSE officer,” he introduced himself nonchalantly.

Jihyun looked at Junmyeon again.  “What is his job in the team?”

“He’s the event manager,” Junmyeon answered.  The whole room began to chatter excitedly.

“And she is?” this Kyungsoo guy pointed at her while looking at Junmyeon expectantly.

Junmyeon sighed.  “The assistant event manager.  Your assistant,” he replied. The moment the answer was was given, Jihyun saw red.  Kyungsoo smirked triumphantly.

“See?  Gender inequality!  You make a man a manager and you make me, a woman, his assistant!  Such a travesty!” she complained.

Kyungsoo wanted to refute but Junmyeon decided that he had enough of this gender equality talk.  “He ran for the manager post. And you, Nam Jihyun, sent your application for the assistant manager post.  There was no woman running for Baekhyun and Chanyeol’s position as event communication and promotion officers.  Minseok and Jongdae got their position fairly based on their skills in people management and how well-connected they were.  Jongin’s portfolio in creative design is the best. And the woman who was supposed to be in Sehun’s position turned down the offer as she needs to help with the opening of our new office!”

“I see.  So, it was fair indeed.  Another woman is actually qualified.  And someone here is actually a second choice,” she said with a poker face.

She did not know any of them, except for Junmyeon and Kyungsoo and Jongdae who was also in a finance office with her as a loan officer.  But then upon her remarks on being a second choice, she saw a man, sitting at the corner of the U-shape meeting table, casted his eyes down and slouched in his seat from his previously confident posture.  And that was when she realised what she had done.

Junmyeon also realised that he had made a mistake.  He shouldn’t have revealed the selection process and the reason behind the selection.  The word confidentiality and the action behind it were created to avoid things like this from happening.  He usually had many situations under control. He was not sure what happened but somehow conversation with Jihyun irked him so much that he lost his composure.  And now the team that he had just assembled was at the verge of breaking apart when they were supposed to work for a very, very important event.

He wanted to blame himself, but then he saw both Kyungsoo and Jihyun looked like they were going to some boulders.  Oh, well. At least he didn't have to bear the burden alone. The three of them had to work on their apologies before they even dreamed to begin to work on job demarcation.

Because a team cannot work well without trust.

+++++

“There will be five main booths.  The hugest. They will be 40 squared feet,” Jongdae explained.

“That small?” Jihyun frowned.

Jongdae nodded confidently.  “Exhibitors agreed to digital screens.  They want to reduce printing. It ought to be green exhibition.  So, no board. Digital screens are quite small but they store more information.  They are our exhibitors’ preference.”

“How much is the cost of these digital screens?” Jihyun took care of the budget.  They called her stingy but she called herself prudent. And she was lucky Jongdae was a finance guy too.  He also was prudent in budgeting for the booth. After all, they worked for a very prudent CFO. Mr Yoon would be unhappy if he knew they spent so much on unnecessary things.

“I’ve analyzed the cost between total digital screens and bigger floor space for booths.  Turn out we cut cost by ten percent for choosing digital screen. And we can cut further by utilizing our in-house digital screens.  Jongin told me that the CDIO office owns ten of them,” Jongdae explained.

Jihyun knew Jongdae wasn’t dubbed “the most hard working guy in Finance” for nothing.  He lived up to his name. His analysis came in detail. He won’t be a loan officer if he was going to do his job halfway.  “How many booths can utilize the in-house digital screens?”

“Since the main five booths will each get five digital screens, so we get two main booths covered already.  As for the remaining five miscellaneous booths, each will get three screens,” Jongdae said while showing the layout of booth arrangement from the company-issued tablet.

“So how many screens left that we need to rent?” she asked.

“A total of of thirty.  I manage to get a good deal.  With one of our stakeholders. We are chummy that way,” Jongdae said, corner of his lips turned upward, joyful was evident for his own impressive work.

“Excellent, Jongdae!  I know you’re the man!” Jihyun praised and Jongdae accepted the compliment with a smile.  “Just make sure you work with Kyungsoo on the safety of using digital screens. I’m pretty sure he would want you distribute some kind of circuit breaker.”

As if on cue, Kyungsoo made his way into the operation room, with Minseok in tow.

“For the first day, the forum session will be during PM, to give way to the opening ceremony in the AM.  On the second and third day we’ll have it in the AM. We have award event and the closing ceremony take the whole PM for the two days.  Will the president be available as one of the panellists for the first forum though? I thought he’ll be busy with the opening of the new office?” Minseok asked.

“Junmyeon confirmed that he will be available,” said Kyungsoo, looking at the forum schedule and list of invited speakers on the tablet.  “Are these speakers finalized?”

“Out of fifteen, only six have yet to confirm.  The CMO is one of them,” Minseok answered.

“It is hard to get Chief Yang, eh?” Kyungsoo asked and then snorted.  Minseok shrugged. “Nevermind. Junmyeon will get that done. When is the President’s session again?”

“First day.  First session in the PM,” Minseok confirmed.

“Alright, good job Minseok.  Just finalize at least the external speakers so that I can work on the security clearance for them,” Kyungsoo instructed.  Minseok nodded and walked to his place beside Jongdae, who was at the moment, working on renting digital screens.

Kyungsoo then took a seat beside Jihyun.  After three weeks working together on the event, Kyungsoo was finally friendly with everybody, including Jihyun.  Well, not Sehun. Sehun kept to himself after the whole “second choice” fiasco. But, that was besides the point. Jihyun was his assistant, and a very good one at that.  Jihyun was the first woman ever Kyungsoo liked working with and he was so scared because that was not his normal.

It was not as if Kyungsoo always be in his comfort zone, no.  He liked challenge and he was always be the first to volunteer doing something that was not him.  But, this was the first time Kyungsoo acknowledged a memory he truly wanted to keep and it involved Jihyun.

Kyungsoo was usually detached to things that were smoochy, or touchy feely.  When he went for a holiday for example, he enjoyed the current moment, without even trying to take a picture or a token with him to remember the moment with in future.  To him, what was in the past should remain in the past.

But a week ago when Junmyeon took the whole team to dinner after a particularly stressful day, Kyungsoo found something that he wanted to take to the grave with him.  They finally decided that they should create a group chat because email trail was such an eyesore and they needed a platform to communicate easily with each other. Hence, they exchanged phone numbers.  And weird Jihyun decided to write her number on a napkin instead of email it to everyone.

They passed the napkin around and it ended up finally with him.  He saw her number on the napkin and a message that said “I’m sorry for what I did on the first day”.  Kyungsoo somehow knew that she did that to actually apologize personally to everyone. Well, they did read the message individually, didn’t they?  He understood that saying sorry was hard and Jihyun actually thought of a way to really pick up the courage and apologize to everyone personally. He thought that was endearing.  After he saved her number, he folded the napkin and took it home with him.

And the napkin was safe inside a shoebox under his bed.

+++++

Jihyun found herself cursing whoever was in her way to the operation room.  She would curse them to the next lifetime if that was possible. Waiting for the lift was even more stressful.  It was only a seventeen-storeyed building for God’s sake but it was as if she was waiting for a lift that move back and forth from Heaven to Hell.  Since the staircase was strictly for emergency, she had no choice but to assault the lift button hoping it would come faster.

But hey!  This is an emergency too, isn’t it?

She heard a ding and the lift suddenly opened revealing an empty one.  Great!  She thought.  She leapt inside and quickly pressed the button to ninth floor.  The door was closing when a hand suddenly slipped through the slit and the the door opened again revealing no other than Kyungsoo.

“Ahhh...Jihyun…” was all he said when he stepped inside.

“Kyungsoo!  You work at the same floor as I am?” she asked.

“Nope.  I am at Level 2.  HSE,” he replied. “Here to inspect on the AED and First Aid Kit.  Then, Junmyeon called for emergency meeting.”

“What happened?”

“Dunno.”  He shrugged.

“But it is ten freaking o’clock in the morning.  Monday morning!” Jihyun whined. He smiled. As much as he liked strong, independent woman like Jihyun, he also liked it when she acted immature.  It just made her human and he adored this side of her. “And I have this financial report due this week. Chief Yoon is so handsome I have to give my all in my deliverables.  I cannot let him down.”

Kyungsoo snorted.  He already thought of different meaning to the words she said.  It was so hard holding in his laughter but he endured. So when the lift dinged Kyungsoo thanked whichever Lord was up there for being so watchful and kind and he exited the lift to avoid Jihyun from seeing his face.  Damn, she would punch him into the next thousand years if she knew what he was thinking.

He walked into the operation room seeing Chanyeol was already waiting.  But, Baekhyun was missing which was weird because they always came together.

“No Baekhyun?” he asked.  Jihyun who just came in and heard the conversation, scanned the room.

“He’s on sick leave.  He overworked himself since last two weeks,” said Chanyeol, taking out his laptop from his bag.

Kyungsoo frowned.  “Well, that’s HSE incident that needs to be recorded.  Did the doctor said that he overworked?”

“Headache, dizziness and fever that hasn’t subsided after three days.  The doctor said it was due to fatigue. He didn’t see it coming I think.  He was so excited for the promotional campaigns with UNICEF and doing this project at the same time.  I am surprised he didn’t break earlier, what with the commitment that he gave for both events,” Chanyeol explained.

It was obvious that Kyungsoo was worried.  “Damn. I need to record this. I’ll see his boss later.  Where are the others?”

“We’re here!” Jongin entered the room, followed by Minseok and Jongdae.

“Where’s Sehun?” asked Jihyun.

He usually would be there if Jongin was there.  Sehun didn’t talk much. He only answered questions so far.  Jihyun still felt guilty over the ‘second choice’ incident and tried to include Sehun in as many conversations possible.

Jongin only realised they looked at him expectantly a few seconds later.  “What? I don’t know. I don’t exactly babysit him.”

“But you both work under the CDIO office,” Jongdae said.

“Different floor.  He’s in IT. I am with Strategic Communication.  I really only know him as the IT guy,” Jongin shrugged.

“We all know him as the IT guy,” Kyungsoo said.

And Chanyeol added.  “He introduced himself as the IT guy.”

“Well, we don’t really know him, do we?” Jihyun said.  “And I have a terrible mouth. I don’t think he really liked working with me.  He’s so poker faced I am not sure if he is still angry or not.”

“He’s like that.  Don’t take it personally.  One time he came to Baekhyun, he asked for Baekhyun’s laptop because he said it was infected with virus.  And he needed to clean it. Baekhyun couldn't tell if he was joking. He took the laptop and worked on it for like twenty minutes and returned it to Baekhyun.  And all the while wearing the same expression on his face. Baekhyun was wondering if there was really a virus and he really cleaned it,” Chanyeol told.

“What is he working as in IT?” Kyungsoo asked.

“Dunno.  Minseok might know.  He’s the HR,” Chanyeol said.  And all eyes were on Minseok.

Minseok frowned.  “His folder landed on my desk once.  But, I can’t remember what for. And I can’t exactly remember his position.  We have almost five thousand employees,” he replied.

Suddenly Junmyeon came in wearing a stressful look.  They stopped talking almost immediately. He scanned the room and asked, “Where’s Baekhyun?”

“Sick leave,” Chanyeol replied.

Junmyeon nodded. “Alright, I guess we’re all here.  The reas-”

“We’re not waiting for Sehun?” Kyungsoo interfered.

“No,” Junmyeon shook his head.  “He’s in an important meeting with Chief Yong, Chief Lee and Chief Son.  He can’t be dismissed.”

“What is he working as exactly?” Minseok asked.

“He’s the IT guy,” Junmyeon answered.

“That’s not exactly ‘exactly’,” Jongdae said.

“Well, that’s not exactly important either,” Junmyeon said and he stared at all of them, dared them to say otherwise.  “Okay. So I was saying that the reason I’m calling you today is because we have some changes with the event agenda.”

“Oh we do?  The event is like what?  One month away from today?” Jongdae said.

“I know.  I know. I’m pretty surprised too.  But, the President wants to include the launching of the new office in the event too.  You know, to commemorate the company’s tenth year. He said, “It’s only neat, don’t you think.”  I personally think it’s going to be a mess now,” Junmyeon said.

The others had their jaws hanged.  And finally Jihyun said, “But I thought the office is in another country?”

“Exactly!  He wants a live broadcasting to be held here on the second day of the tenth year celebration.  In the AM. So Minseok, I am afraid that the forum session needs to be pushed to PM,” Junmyeon sighed.

“But the panellists?”

“I know.  I’m sorry.  You need to confirm again with our panellists if they can make it in the PM.  If they can’t, you need to find new panellists. Also, the president couldn't make it for the first day’s forum session in the PM.  He needs to catch a flight to the launching event. But, I already talked to VP Strategic Planning and Mr Kim agreed to be the panellist,” Junmyeon explained and Minseok feverishly typed everything down on his tablet.

“That’s a surprise isn’t it?” Chanyeol contemplated.  “That will need a new kind of promotion too, right?”

“Yes.  Thanks Chanyeol.  You know what to do.  Jongin, do whatever Chanyeol and Baekhyun need you to do.  Jongdae, the Leadership Team is planning to visit all the booths on the final day, before they go to the closing event.  Hope you can work on something with the exhibitors.”

“Leadership Team as in all the Chiefs right? CEO, CFO, CMO, CDIO, COO, those people right?”

“Yes.”

“Damn.  I’ll work on something.”

“Okay.  So the President won’t be around on the second day of the event right?  What about the award ceremony?” Jihyun asked.

“Alright.  That one. You and you,” Junmyeon gestured at Jihyun and Kyungsoo, “Need to work together to rearrange the award event so that it can be combined with the closing ceremony.  I want the agenda finalized in three days.”

Kyungsoo and Jihyun nodded.  “And how exactly the tenth year live streaming will be included in this event?” Kyungsoo asked.

“Sehun will work on that,” Junmyeon answered.  “Jongin, the event booklet. How’s that going on?  And with things keep changing, how are you going to manage this?”

“I’ve worked on something.  Plan A to Plan D. You wanna see them?” Jongin asked.

“Sure.  Let’s,” Junmyeon said.  “You both,” he gestured again to Kyungsoo and Jihyun, “I really need you to monitor these changes.”

As if they have worked together through lifetimes, Jihyun and Kyungsoo fell into their rhythm perfectly.  And Kyungsoo looked forward to more hours of working with Jihyun.

+++++

Jihyun and Kyungsoo were working on the financial and logistic aspects of the event when the catering lady poked her head inside the operation room to tell them that snacks were available at the pantry.  Chanyeol and Baekhyun cheered in their seats, probably had their energy depleted with all the promotions going on. And Jihyun thought Baekhyun really needed to take it easy. No wonder he had a burnout. He poured his energy endlessly into work.

“Let’s go out for snacks,” Kyungsoo tapped Jihyun’s arm.

“Ok. Sure,” Jihyun said.  “Guys, don’t you wanna snack?” she asked the others.

Kyungsoo wanted to scream.  He wanted to be alone with her, just with her.  That was why he tapped her arm and whispered to her to get snacks with him.  The others were not supposed to know because they were going to spend at least five minutes, just the two of them.  But of course Jihyun would asked the others to join. And this resulted to Kyungsoo giving his best death glare to Chanyeol and Baekhyun.

“Well…” Baekhyun tried to hide his smile.  Kyungsoo was lucky that Baekhyun was expert in reading human gestures.  “We have a few things we need to confirm with Yixing. We’ll snack later.”

“We do?” Chanyeol asked.  And Baekhyun smacked the back of his head.

“You seriously don’t remember?  Regarding the distribution of Ten Year badges and the corporate shirts to employees in the new office?  You remember now?” Baekhyun asked, at the same time tugging at Chanyeol’s shirt sleeve.

Chanyeol blinked.  Baekhyun kicked his shin.  And when Chanyeol looked at Kyungsoo and noticed his death glare, he quickly nodded to Jihyun.  “Yeah. Yeah. We have this thing with Yixing that we need to settle. We’ll go in another fifteen minutes?”  Seeing Kyungsoo’s subtle nod, Chanyeol continued. “Both of you go first.”

Jongin and Sehun was an easier case.  They were too absorbed in their work that they didn't hear Jihyun’s question.  But of course Jihyun asked them again. Lucky Kyungsoo, Jongin just shook his head and Sehun dismissed them with a quick wave of his hand before he got back to work.

When they arrived at the pantry, Kyungsoo felt he could murder someone.  There were three staff sitting in the pantry, enjoying snacks from a table labelled Discussion Room 1.  Why was it so hard for him to get some time alone with Jihyun?

Feeling helpless, Kyungsoo walked to the vending machine.  “What would you like to drink?”

“Ice cappuccino,” she answered and took a seat on the huge table labeled Operation Room.

Kyungsoo got one ice coffee and one ice cappuccino from the prepaid vending machine.  He contemplated on his next move. Should he or should he not ask her on a date? In front of the other anonymous three staff who might laugh if he got rejected?

“For you,” he sat right beside her.  Both of then had their backs facing the three staff.

Kyungsoo ended up decided to just have a small talk to get to know Jihyun on a more personal level.  But, the other three at the next table chatted so loud that it was impossible for him not to shout to be heard.

“I don’t know why,” the woman laughed.  “I think I’m cursed. I always had my breakup on my birthday.”

Jihyun almost choked on her drink but she covered with a small cough and “Did you even put sugar in this?” and Kyungsoo was being understanding and shook his head, feigning surprise.  Jihyun laughed silently and Kyungsoo did too. Kyungsoo knew those mischievous eyes. She wanted him to join her eavesdropping. And Kyungsoo had no problem doing so as long as they did something together.

“Well, that .  I just thought that I wanna be in a relationship with you.  But your birthday is in two months and I don’t wanna set a new record for myself to break up after just two months being in a relationship,” the guy said.

“You both are loser,” the other guy said.

The woman snorted.  “Say someone who never had a girlfriend.”

“Or a boyfriend,” said the break up guy.

Jihyun scooted closer to Kyungsoo.  Her cheeks were red. She obviously had a hard time restraining herself from laughing.  And now, feeling her so close to him with those brights eyes and red cheeks, Kyungsoo was having a hard time restraining himself from doing something stupid.

“How can people speak such trivial matters during office hours?” she whispered.

“What?” Kyungsoo whispered back.

“Those small talks.  They don’t mind sharing their personal thing with the public?” Jihyun laughed silently.  “Funny conversation.”

Kyungsoo was glad he hadn't begun the small talk he planned earlier.  She might think so little of him. But she was still so close to him that he hoped she didn’t hear his heart hammering his ribcage.

Jihyun took two packs of fruit salad and gave one to Kyungsoo.  She grabbed two sporks and extended one to Kyungsoo. “Let’s eat.  We still have a lot to do,” she said with a smile and her eyes turned to the shape of crescent.

Damn!  I think I’m gonna die. He thought as his heart beat even faster it felt like like it would leap out of his throat.  He tried to focus on thoughts other than Jihyun but all qualities that he liked about her - fierce, bold, independent, opinionated - all came resurfaced into his already discombobulated mind.

He acknowledged that this was the first time ever a woman made him feel like this.  The last time he was nervous was on his first day of school, but that was because of his brother’s ridiculous story that he would become somebody’s slave.

Luckily, Baekhyun and Chanyeol came out of the operation room and walked towards them.  Kyungsoo noticed Baekhyun’s wink and groaned internally, at the same time was grateful for the distraction.  He looked as they sat down and Jihyun only talked to them and not helping them to the salad liked she did with him.  He already felt better because Jihyun treated him better than the other two at least.

Already he had the thought to keep the plastic spork in the shoebox under his bed.

+++++

“No, the agreement has stated that it can be renewed after ten years but will also be reviewed for every five years,” that was Minseok, the first view that met Jihyun early in the morning.  With his headset latched onto his head and himself fervently answering questions, he gave her the comical effect of a call centre, where customers actually expressed their feelings more than stating the real problem.

Jihyun had been spending time in the operation room at level nine more than her office as the day of the tenth year celebration drawing near.  The other team members had been doing the same. She was just pulling her chair out when Jongin came in looking disgruntled.

“Morning,” he said half-heartedly.

“Morning,” she replied.

“No!” that was Minseok again, screaming into the mic.  Minseok never really screamed. He didn’t even talk that much.  Whoever was at the receiving end of the line must have made a huge mistake.  “You can’t do it that way. It is on assignment basis.” There was a pause. Jihyun saw Chanyeol coming in.  “Alright. Why don’t you just get the agreement to Legal team? For due diligence?” A moment later, the line was disconnected and Minseok sighed.

“What a morning, huh?” Chanyeol said and shook his head.  “I bought cold brew coffee for you guys,” he said while putting the plastic cups at their respective places.

“Waaahhh!  Thank you, Chan!”  Jongdae said. He had just came in with Baekhyun and knowing someone had bought coffee on a particularly busy and tiring morning cheered him up.

“You haven’t seen Sehun outside.  That was the most I heard him talking,” said Baekhyun.

“Really?  You know what he is working as now?” Jongin asked.

“I don’t know,” Baekhyun said.  “Don’t understand a single thing he said.  I only know that he’s a and many women are actually waiting to get into his pants.”

“What?” Jihyun exclaimed.

Kyungsoo just walked in and he caught the conversation already.  “He didn’t say that on the phone,” he said.

“No, he didn’t,” Baekhyun confirmed.  “I heard gossips.”

“We heard all sort of things about him but what we really need is the truth,” Chanyeol said.

“Yeah,” Jongin said.  “What is he working as, Minseok?  You have access to the database, to everyone’s information.  You just need to key in his name.”

Minseok blinked.  “Should I abuse my accessibility to the database for something like this?”

“No!” Jihyun and Kyungsoo answered simultaneously.

Jihyun knew that action would be wrong under the code of conduct.  And she didn’t want any of her committee members being questioned just because they wanted an information about someone who was apparently mysterious.  And Jihyun seriously didn’t know that she had to take care of a bunch of uncivilized people when she first signed up to be the assistant manager.

“Why don’t we just ask him guys?” Jongdae questioned.

And right after he suggested it, Sehun walked in, still on the phone.  Baekhyun really told the truth. That was the most they heard him talking.

“You just reverse engineer it.  Then put up the firewall. But, that’s reactive,” he paused.  “I’m looking toward a more proactive approach, an initiative with our data scientists.  We work on a system to give us warning of potential attacks and we could put up a defense before the attacks occur.”

Sehun didn’t realize that all eyes were on him, curious as to what his conversation entailed.  He put his bag on the table and took out his laptop with his free hand. “The data will come from us.  So as the algorithm for the defense. Their algorithm will only cover the detection of pattern of the attacks and the warning system.”  He paused again. “Of course. I will get back to you once I have the proposal done.” And he ended the phone conversation.

“Jihyun, I have included some of this year’s President’s direction in the video teaser,” Sehun explained while he switched on his laptop.  “Yixing came back to me with the clips of the set up of the new office. I have edited that into the President’s words. Once you and Kyungsoo give the teaser a go, I will pass this to Chanyeol and Baekhyun.”

He looked up and saw that everybody was staring at him.  “What?”

And the others quickly got back to work, all means of asking question was forgotten due to Sehun’s cold glare.  Only Jihyun and Kyungsoo approached him to see another impressive montage from Sehun.

Jihyun was wondering now if Sehun was really a second choice.  Or Junmyeon said that only to make her feel good about the lack of woman in the team.  Sehun was insanely good in what he was doing. Being in charge of the audio visual of the team, Sehun had planned ahead of time on what he wanted to do.  He didn’t need direction from Junmyeon or Kyungsoo or herself.

Three days after their first meeting, Sehun had came up with a schedule of release of video teasers for their tenth year celebration.  One video comprises of interviews, while another comprises of short skit. Most are five-second animation for the upcoming events. Jihyun’s favourite was the compilation of their CSR activities throughout the ten years.  It showed how much the company gave back to the society with their growth.

And this time’s video had just become her new favourite.  It made her immensely proud to be working with Around Us company.  She knew the history. The company had started up with their five Chiefs, working hard to make education accessible to many youths.  And seeing the video of their new office somewhere that was supposed to be obsolete, now developed, with the President’s voice giving his direction on venturing to more underdeveloped area, made her proud.

It was only thirty seconds, but that was thirty seconds of an almost eye-tearing moment.  Jihyun actually applauded when the video ended and the others looked at her curiously.

“This is nice, Sehun!  It touches us. Right, Kyungsoo?” she looked at Kyungsoo beside her.

Kyungsoo was smiling too.  And he nodded to everything she said.  Kyungsoo was torn between being professional or enjoying his personal satisfaction of seeing Jihyun getting moist eyes over a video.  While he truly complimenting Sehun’s tactful work, he also loved seeing passionate Jihyun, a side she rarely surfaced. Kyungsoo did not know if he was supposed to asked for Sehun’s laptop to be kept in his shoe box under the bed.

He ended up looking back at Sehun and said, “Nice one.  Give it to Chan And Baek. They will decide the period this will be played on the digital screens.”

Sehun narrowed his eyes to the two of them, confused of the reek of emotional display in front of him.  But, his expression remained stoic and he saved the video to the encrypted thumb drive.

“Urm... I’ve also emailed both of you on the detailed plan of live broadcast of the launching of the new office,” Sehun said.

Jihyun nodded.  “Don’t you want to go through it with us?” she asked.

“According to Yixing, his team there will be on standby for every thirty minutes.  The different in time zone might be a bit confusing for our first broadcast though.”

“And?” Kyungsoo encouraged him to continue.  Sehun was being Sehun again.

“But, I’ve set our alert notification to match the time the event will begin there,” Sehun explained.

“We can’t guarantee the event will begin on time.  Will we be on standby all the time?” Kyungsoo asked.

“I’ve worked on that with Junmyeon,” Sehun answered.

“Alright...what’s the plan?” Jihyun had to asked or Sehun will never say.

“President’s executive assistant will the President for a fifteen-minute standby session before the launching begins.  When the standby session starts, he will alert both Yixing’s team and us, allow us an exact fifteen minutes to standby,” Sehun answered.

“Good job!” Jihyun was impressed by how thorough Sehun was.  “How do we broadcast here?”

“Every digital screen in this building,” he answered.

“All?” Kyungsoo asked, surprised.

Sehun nodded.  “I’ve done a survey on the employees in this building.  Ninety percent responded they wanted to obtain update on the launching of Around Us fifth office,” Sehun explained.

Now both of them remembered the survey.  Jihyun got excited again and Kyungsoo just loved how round her eyes were.  “You’ve outdone yourself again this time Sehun!” she exclaimed.

Jihyun was glad that all went well with the team.  The hell with second choice. They might all be her first choice if she had to choose.  Sehun just didn’t really display his potential. But if given a chance, those working around him knew that he actually would give his all to achieve the best result.

Jihyun stood up excitedly and walked back to her place.  In her excitement, she was unaware that she had just dropped her pen.  Kyungsoo picked up the pen and quickly hid it in his pocket.

The pen will be kept in the shoebox under his bed.

+++++

Jihyun was woken up by sound blaring from her phone.  Strange. She remembered not setting an alarm. It took her another second to realise that it was actually a phone call from someone.  She fumbled with her phone from the bedside table and squinted at the screen once her grip on the device was stable. Her frown became deeper when she realized the call was coming from a person she least expected to call her during the weekend.

“Kyungsoo?  What the hell?  It’s weekend,” she said once she slided the green button.  It was Saturday morning (or maybe afternoon?) and she had no other plan than to sleep in.

“Well, good afternoon to you,” Kyungsoo deadpanned.  He did not expect getting cursed as a way of greetings, but knowing Jihyun, she would do just that.  It would just take quite some times on Kyungsoo’s part to get used to her way.

“So it is afternoon,” Jihyun said while confirming the time with the pink clock on her pink wall.  She could almost hear Kyungsoo rolled his eyes in knowing that she had wasted all morning sleeping.  “Still. It’s weekend. You don’t call me unless it is work. And I have never combine work with weekend.  So, bye Kyungsoo.” She almost ended the call, but the sound that came out of her earpiece was almost too high-pitched and feminine that she stopped herself from doing so.

“Wait Jihyun-ah!”

“What?”

“If you put down the phone I will shout in front of your apartment and bother your neighbour.  So, please open the door,” he pleaded.

Door?  Kyungsoo?  Door? Kyungsoo is here?  “You wouldn’t dare. And I don’t believe you are here.  That’s just empty threat.”

As if on cue, the bell rang and the door was knocked a few times.  “I am here. Open the door.”

“ you, Kyungsoo!” she jumped from her bed to get the door.

Her thin hair was sticking out at weird angles and her eyes were swollen.  Not to mention she was in her pyjama pants and a t-shirt with a turtle cartoon picture on it.  And she had not brush her teeth nor had she wash her face. With one hand holding the phone to her ear, she disabled the lock using another hand and yanked the door open.  She saw a cheerful Kyungsoo in front of her and her expression darkened.

“I hate you,” she said while ending the call.  Kyungsoo still gave her his retarded smile and she wanted to push him down the stairs and watch him roll to death.  Except, she didn’t want to do that. She ended up with quite a lame remark that she believed will make Baekhyun frowned in disgust.  “You look like a donkey with that smile. Retard.”

“Well, still better than your waking up face,” he replied.

“What do you want?”  She got straight to business.

“Go shower.  I give you thirty minutes.  We go out and buy the decoration items Chanyeol and Baekhyun requested,” Kyungsoo said nonchalantly while making himself comfortable on the couch in the living room.

Jihyun looked at him incredulously.  “What part of not combining work and weekend that you don’t understand?  You go. I’m sleeping. Besides, I thought Junmyeon is getting those.”

“I volunteer to get them.  And Junmyeon gave me the money already,” Kyungsoo rebutted.

Jihyun rolled her eyes.  “You volunteered. I didn’t.  So, get the out and let me sleep,” she said.

“It’s afternoon.  I am taking you to lunch.  How about the new beef place down the street?”

The mentioned of beef made Jihyun mouth watered.  She swallowed silently. But then, her stomach rumbled and Kyungsoo looked at her with a face that screamed ‘Victory!’ and she found herself wanted to strangle him.  She praised herself for having a lot of self-control today.

“Fine.  Only because you will pay for my food,” Jihyun stated, refused to acknowledge that Kyungsoo had just broke her own tradition of no working on the weekend.  Kyungsoo nodded. “Thirty minutes. And don’t try anything funny in my home.”

With that she disappeared into the master bedroom and made sure she locked the door.  Upon hearing the click, Kyungsoo only laughed silently and began to look for the TV remote.  He was completely immersed watching Netflix when he heard the door was yanked open and her commanding voice.

“Enjoying the time, are we?” she remarked.  Kyungsoo only smiled and looked at his watch.  She was true to her words. It was indeed thirty minutes.  He quickly switched off the television and led the way.

Lunch was a smooth business, considering Kyungsoo was not being cursed for the whole one hour they were eating.  Jihyun was considerably tame when she was enjoying food and Kyungsoo loved how delicious the food looked when she was eating them.  And not to forget how pleasant it was to feel safe around her when she was enjoying her meal.

Luckily for Kyungsoo, she was even pleasant enough during their trip to the store and the whole day when he was with her.  There was a lot of stole glances, thrown glares and exchanged insults, but she was pleasant still.

When he safely get her to the apartment in the evening, he inwardly cheered triumphantly because his plan to volunteer to get the decoration items in order to shadow his main objective to get her on a lunch date with him was a success.  He congratulated himself to have unlocked another achievement in his life, to go on date with a woman he liked.

Most importantly, he took the memento of the victorious day with him and kept the receipt from the beef place in the shoe box under his bed.

+++++

Jihyun thought she had successfully worked under pressure before, but she could never be more wrong.  This was pressure at another level. This kind of pressure made her heart constricted and she felt like air was forced out of her lungs.  It was intense.

The company intra network was disabled since last Friday by direction from their very own Chief Digital and Information Officer, Mr Lee.  It began with a phishing email, which was sent to a few employees of the company. And not all of the employees were smart enough to recognize a phishing email and delete them as soon as they read it.  Some even have the audacity to click on the link given, excited to enroll into another training course. And that was when the war between the company’s cyber security team and some cyber criminals began.  And Jihyun did not know which one she hated more, the cyber criminals or the stupid people in the company?

Jihyun was stressed enough because it was hard to communicate between the team without the network, but they also lost one of their committee members due to the attack.  This was one time Jihyun regretted her decision to accept Sehun as committee members because he was apparently in the cyber security team for God’s sake. They finally knew Sehun’s job and Jihyun regretted leaving the event montage until the very last minute because that was the most important thing, but Sehun had a more important duty to protect the company’s data.  As Chief Lee said, other things can wait.

“How long do we have to work without the system?” Jihyun sighed, expressing her anger, disappointment and worry at once.  Kyungsoo swallowed dryly.

“I don’t know.  This makes everyone crazy.  The event is on the day after tomorrow.”  Kyungsoo glared at his laptop, willing the network to work.

“ the cyber criminals,” Baekhyun said while loosening his tie.  His job in promotion was halted because he couldn’t get connected to any digital screen in the company.  It would be okay if Chief Lee only instructed to disable the common network because he could just get the company’s device connected to his mobile hotspot.  But the cyber security team had disabled the wireless network for all devices belonged to the company when Chief Lee decided he did not want to risk anything.

Minseok and Jongdae was the only one unaffected by the unforeseen cyber-attack.  They could be seen talking to their phone most of the time, finalizing with forum panellists and booth exhibitors on what can and cannot be spoken or exhibited on the day.  Jongin was frustrated because he couldn’t finalize the design of the event alert poster but he could find other things to do such as sorting out the event booklets. Chanyeol, who was Baekhyun’s partner in promotion, was being the positive one and decided to assist Jongin in sorting out booklets.

Kyungsoo’s phone suddenly rang, breaking the tension roaming the room.  Since they had become quite idle, the phone call had actually piqued their interest.  All eyes were on Kyungsoo, hoping for good news.

“Yes, Junmyeon,” Kyungsoo answered.  “I don’t know. The third promotional email was supposed to be disseminated last Friday.  And we also have our on-event alert promotional poster to be finalized. And the event montage creation was not even started yet.  We don’t need the network to make the montage but we need Sehun. Can you get him excused?”

Kyungsoo was silent for a moment, listening to what Junmyeon had to say.  The others were looking at him with anticipation, hoping for good news from Junmyeon.  But then they saw Kyungsoo hunched forward and sighed.

“Alright.  I’ll try asking him,” Kyungsoo said and ended the call afterwards. “Jongin, is it possible that you do the montage?”

Jongin immediately stopped whatever he was doing and looked at Kyungsoo with an unreadable expression.  “Why?” he asked. They could sense the question made Jongin stiff. “I thought Sehun does that,” he said, sounded quite defensive.  People could easily misunderstand that he didn’t want to step up and help the team.

Jihyun, who could read Kyungsoo’s expression which was also Junmyeon’s intention, tried to rationalize.  “We don’t know when Sehun would be here and in two days we have to play the montage during the opening ceremony.  In whatever event, the montage is the most important thing. It is almost like a performance. We should already have it by now in case we still need to make any amendment to it.”

Jongin shook his head.  “I won’t take it from Sehun.  When Sehun says he’s gonna do it, he’s gonna get it done,” he defended.

“But we don’t even know when he’s gonna get done with the cyber criminals,” Jihyun rebutted.

Jongin had his jaw set.  He got it that everyone was chasing deadlines here but would it be nice if they took away the trust that they gave to someone for something that was not even in his control?  “Oh have some faith. The cyber security team never took more than three days to resolve an attack. I’m pretty sure they will get it done by today. And Sehun will join us by tomorrow and get the ing montage done.”

“Will he be able to give his one hundred percent though?  Pretty sure he’ll be exhausted.” Jihyun began to argue not for the sake of rationalizing, but to only to vent her anger that had welled up since the network was disabled.  The others were sensing a full fledge debate to occur.

Jongin’s face tightened.  It was obvious the team was in great stress.  “He’ll get it done. With top quality. I’m pretty sure he already has something up his sleeve.  Sehun is not that dumb to get things done at the very last minute.”

“Get the montage done in one day?”  Jihyun started to feel annoyed too because Jongin had put her in a very bad light here, as if Jihyun didn’t trust her team mate.

Luckily, Baekhyun saved the situation from becoming more serious. “Guys!  We’re connected! Chanyeol! Come here. We’ve got loads to do.” Chanyeol quickly left the booklets and ran to his laptop located beside Baekhyun’s.

“There you go.  Plus point for you.  Sehun will be here soon,” Jongin said and left the booklet station too.

Jihyun sighed.  She regretted instantly getting into argument with Jongin.  It was very unprofessional of her to argue just because she was frustrated.  She made a mental note to apologize to Jongin. Just when she thought the situation was beginning to become a little better, Kyungsoo was called suddenly by the HSE office.  With Junmyeon was still at the CMO office trying to finalize the event agenda, Jihyun was left managing the team alone for the time being.

Jongdae suddenly came to her and offered a chocolate bar, in which she took.  “It’s okay to feel frustrated once in a while Jihyun-ah. It’s normal. Trust me it will get better from now on,” he said.  Jihyun felt slightly better almost instantly, and in her desperation to see the event succeeds, she managed to draw the event tentative up to Plan D.  

An hour later, Sehun showed up looking haggard.  His face that was usually devoid of any emotion actually was readable today.  Poor kid looked like he was going to cry. The dark shadow under his eyes was prominent.  His eyes were bloodshot and he looked like he was going to fall apart any moment from now.

He quickly took a seat at his worked station and Jihyun saw that he took a few deep breaths to get himself under control.  Jongin stared at Sehun worriedly and she could see the others were too. And Jihyun actually noticed that Sehun wore the same shirt, tie and pants from last Friday.  With the tie loosened, topmost button undone, sleeves rolled up to his elbows, it was obvious that he had not gone home since he was called. And all of them actually had an enjoyable weekend.

Sehun rubbed his eyes and proceeded with pressing the heels of his palms to his eyes to clear his vision.  Then, he looked at Jihyun. “I’m really sorry, Jihyun. I know that you must be worried about the montage,” he said.  “I actually have put the clips together and edit some BGM in. Still need to work on the BGM but that will be done soon. The only thing left was the video effect and some captions here and there.  Easy stuff. I’ll get this done by today. Is that ok?”

Jihyun did not know how to respond to that.  Sehun’s voice was a mix of nasally and raspy.  She instantly knew that he was battling cold and fatigue.  She stared at Sehun and Sehun’s deep frowned told her that she needed to respond quickly.  “Don’t you think you need a break, Sehun?”

Sehun shook his head and regretted doing so.  “I’m fine,” he said and emitted a cough immediately afterwards.  “I’ll try to get the montage done by today. Is that ok?” he asked again.  Now, it was Jihyun who wanted to cry. He wished Kyungsoo or Junmyeon were here.  Sehun listened to them or it was them who were slightly scary in giving instruction.  Either way, it will work wonders in the current situation. “That’s more than ok already, Sehun-ah,” she ended up saying.

Jihyun looked at the others for help and they nodded to her, assuring that the situation was under control.  Jongin even assured her that he will look out for Sehun.

Sehun had proven that he was capable of doing more things than he was given credit for.  Jihyun thought Sehun didn't even get the event montage started yet, given that he was burdened with the promotional montage so far.  But, the kid put effort in making the event montage too, although the direction was for him to do it at later time.

It was obvious that everyone became quite agitated everytime Sehun coughed or even as much as sniffed.  They did the calculations in their head and could tell that Sehun had gone more seventy-two hours without sleep due to the cyber attack and it was taking toll on him.  But he insisted on working, even when Chanyeol asked if he would like to take a nap on the couch at the corner of the operation room. The most they could do was offering him warm water.

Kyungsoo came back to the operational room thirty minutes later.  “Sehun here?”

“Yes,” Chanyeol said, looking up from laptop.  Junmyeon came through the door and looked at them.  It seemed that he did not fare better either. Being the event director made him thinner.

Sehun did not answer.  His focus was on the screen of his laptop.  And his ears was covered by the headphone. He needed to work on the background music a little bit more.

“What is he doing?” Junmyeon asked.

“He said he’s working on the montage,” Jihyun answered.

“He went seventy-two hours without sleep and then he worked on the montage?” Kyungsoo was annoyed, especially after he heard Sehun coughing.

“We tried to talk some sense into him but he didn’t listen,” Jongdae said.

“We need to take him home.  The others from his team already went home,” Junmyeon said.

“What happened actually?” Baekhyun asked.

“We were hit by the worst cyber attack so far.  It didn’t just almost steal information on the corporate employees but our virtual tutors all over the world.  It also almost corrupted our online learning modules. The cyber security team put quite a fight to reverse engineer the malware but it seems like the cyber criminal team was persistent in hacking our system.  They even tried different route when one wasn’t a success,” Junmyeon said.

“That’s not a cyber attack.  That’s a cyber terrorism,” Jongin said.  “We have all our data, information and knowledge secured?”

“Yes.  Our cyber security team put up their best fight.  They really went without sleep,” Junmyeon said.

“I thought they worked in shift?” Chanyeol asked.

“The cyber security officers, yes.  But the cyber security specialists were needed throughout.  They were the one knowing what to do,” Junmyeon explained.

“Sehun’s a cyber security specialists?” Jongin asked.  The others were surprised too. All eyes were on Sehun, who still didn’t give a on what happened to his surrounding.

Suddenly, Minseok snapped his fingers.  “Oh yes! He is. That’s why his file landed on my desk.  For a proposal to become a Principal in cyber security. He’s one of our only three specialists,” he said.  “Now I remember!”

“Oh wow!” Chanyeol exclaimed.

Kyungsoo only sighed and walked to Sehun.  He tapped on Sehun’s shoulder to get his attention.  Sehun saw that everyone was looking at him and he take off the headphone.  Even his movement was sluggish.

“Wow Sehun!  It was a job well done on cyber security!” Baekhyun said and Sehun immediately flinched to his loud voice.

Kyungsoo noticed Sehun was having a headache and with the sniffing and coughing going on, Kyungsoo could only deduced one thing.  And he put his palm on Sehun’s forehead which the other guy tried to pried off.

“We’re supposed to take you home,” Kyungsoo said, trying to keep his voice as low as possible.  “COO’s instruction. I was called to my office just now and was told to make sure all cyber security people involved in the protection get home and get a good rest.”

“But, my job here is not done,” Sehun said.  His voice was hoarse now.

“The others had went home.  Some HSE officers have taken care of them.  You’re under my responsibility. I need to get you home.  The longer you go without sleep, the higher the HSE risk is.  And you are having a fever. You noticed that right?”

Sehun didn’t answer.  He stared at Kyungsoo without responding.  Junmyeon walked to him and tapped his shoulder again.  “Sehun?”

Sehun looked at him.  “What?”

“Did you hear what Kyungsoo said?”

“That you need to get cyber security officers home?  Chief Son’s instruction?” Sehun recalled.

“And that you have a fever?” Kyungsoo said.

Sehun looked confused.  “Oh you did? I must have microslept again,” Sehun said, rubbing his eyes.

Hearing ‘microslept’ and ‘again’ didn’t sit well with Kyungsoo.  That was HSE incident. He needed to file a report. And Jihyun was just as worried as Kyungsoo was.  She walked to Sehun’s laptop, saved whatever programs that was opened and then closed them. She then shut down the laptop.  “That’s it, Sehun. You’re going home.” She even packed his bag and gave it to Kyungsoo.

“We’ll see the doctor first before we go home,” Kyungsoo told Junmyeon.

Junmyeon nodded.  “Jongin, you follow Kyungsoo.  Assist him.”

Jongin didn't need to be told twice.  He took Sehun’s arm and stood with him, letting Sehun leaned on him.  A minute later, the three of them exited the room.

“Stubborn fella,” Junmyeon muttered.

“And what happened to you?”  Baekhyun asked. “You were all sunshine this morning.  And it is just the lunchtime,” Baekhyun asked. Jongdae couldn’t help but snickered.

Junmyeon rolled his eyes and spoke through his clenched teeth.   “CMO’s office happened. God...his executive assistant was hard to deal with.  She’s so protective over Chief Yang. But, we finally got the agenda finalized.”

“Really?  So now I can finalized the menu and logistics for the event?” Jihyun beamed.

“Yes,” Junmyeon confirmed.  “But, maybe we wait for Kyungsoo.  He would be jealous if I work with you.”

Jihyun immediately reddened and Chanyeol snickered.  Minseok and Jongdae smirked and Baekhyun laughed.

“Yeah.  Wait for Kyungsoo.  Don’t make him heartbroken,” Baekhyun said and got back to work.  

The others did the same, leaving Jihyun cursing Kyungsoo to the next lifetime because he couldn’t just be more obvious.

+++++

Jihyun reached the office at 7.30 AM.  And she felt better than yesterday, like nothing was going to let her spirit down today.  Event agenda was finalized yesterday. The only thing left to see was the event montage. And Jihyun didn’t expect to see it today.  So far, Sehun had done his things with minimal supervision. Jihyun believed that Sehun would email her the video soon and that will be the final one anyway.

Almost skipping in her joyful steps, she took time to walk to the operation room.  She was quite early today and she believed nobody was in the room anyway. She preferred to remember her dinner with Kyungsoo last evening.  It was hectic yesterday. But since they got things finalized and everybody was smiling by 6.30 PM.

Minseok went home first, saying that he was having dinner with friends.  Jongin went for a dinner date with his girlfriend. Chanyeol went home with Baekhyun, saying they needed to catch up on PUBG.  Jongdae said he had a food drive and needed to get to the homeless shelter. Junmyeon had a musical to watch. Jihyun was left with Kyungsoo in the end.

Since Kyungsoo didn’t have a plan either, he took her to dinner at a good mac n cheese place, since he heard her talking about it for the whole last week.  Jihyun was flattered to be honest.

Jihyun knew Kyungsoo tried to flirt with her.  He was so inexperienced that it was painfully obvious.  Well, she was inexperienced too but because she wasn’t the one flirted, it was not so obvious that she was clueless too as how to respond to Kyungsoo.  But in all, she found Kyungsoo charming and endearing the way he tried to have a conversation that was not about work with her.

Like last night, when he tried to get more info on her private life but was afraid he had asked too much and crossed the line.  He was so careful with his words that it was funny. Her favourite was when he asked what was her plan for her own future and she purposely answered everything about her career without telling getting married is one of the plans.  He ended up scratched his head and getting fidgety.

She was so into her thought about Kyungsoo that she didn’t realise she had already reached the operation room.  The light was already switched on and she wondered who came to the office earlier than 7.30 in the morning. When she opened the door, she was surprised to see the person inside.

“Sehun!  What are you doing here?  I thought you are on sick leave?” Jihyun asked, seated herself at Jongin’s place.  Sehun was not in his working attire. He dressed casually in t-shirt, hooded jacket and jeans.

“I am.  Thought I come here to show you and Kyungsoo the video.  And if it needs amendment, I’ll just do it here. Easier on the feedback,” he said.  He’s no longer sniffing at least. Just the coughs and raspy voice and the temperature.  “And in case I need to help in the promotion as well. I heard it was halted for a while due to the disconnection.”

“Well, take it easy today.  Chan and Baek got that covered.  They forced their minions in Marketing to help.  Plus, Chief Yang made those in his office helps with it,” Jihyun informed.  “What time did you arrive here this morning?”

“Around 7.15.”

“What are you doing up so early?”

“I slept enough.  I even slept in the car on the way home yesterday.  I woke up around nine, showered and ate and then worked on finishing the montage.  And I slept again around 12 until 6 this morning. That’s plenty of sleep,” Sehun said and Jihyun smiled.  It was hard to see a chatty Sehun. Maybe the fever was toying with his mind.

“You had breakfast?”

“Not yet.  You want me to get something for you?” Sehun asked.

“No.  No. Pretty sure Chan will come with breakfast for everyone.  Or maybe Junmyeon. They had been putting up a show of buying breakfast for everyone lately.” Jihyun chuckled.

“Thank God,” Sehun said and he laughed.  “I don’t think I want to walk somewhere right now.”  He rubbed his temples.

“You okay?”

“Yeah.  Don’t worry.  I know when to slow down.  I’m not Baekhyun,” he said and they both laughed.

As if on cue, Baekhyun and Chanyeol walked in chatting happily, hands full of breakfast boxes.  They noticed Sehun and Jihyun.

“You made Sehun talked?” Baekhyun asked jokingly.  “Now I really have to bow to you.” Then he turned to Sehun.  “What are you doing here? Go rest at home.” He dragged a chair and sat beside Sehun.

“I’m here for the montage,” Sehun said.  “And in case I need to help.”

Chanyeol also dragged a chair and sat in front of Sehun.  “You feel okay?”

“Not so bad.  Better than being cooped in a room, staring down at codes and having my fingers hurt from typing vigorously,” Sehun said.

“The attack was vicious, huh?”

“Yeah.  But, we’re fine now,” Sehun answered.

Baekhyun distributed the breakfast box.  “Eat,” he instructed them. Soon, the room began to fill with more members of the committee, whose first queries were always on why Sehun was there.  Baekhyun became his spokesperson and answered on his behalf. Chanyeol gave them breakfast box and told them that he bought extra in case one box wasn’t enough.  They proceeded with breakfast.

After breakfast, they proceeded with watching the montage.  The whole team were touched by the arrangement of the clips.  Sehun began the video with the backstory of the five Chiefs. How they worked part time as tutor at university.  Papers with phone numbers were stuck to the information board, hoping somebody would tear the phone number and called it.  The need of a part time job and low requests of tutoring session forced the Chiefs to think of alternatives.

Inspired by the e-hailing taxi app, Chief Yong began creating an app, assisted by the other four founders.  That was where the five of them advertised themselves, by putting up their education background and their tutoring subjects. People began to book their time and chose a study place and they went to the student to get their job done.  Soon after, other tutors in the college requested permission to join the app and that was how the app began to become popular that a company contacted them to expand the users of the app.

With the company’s sources, teachers began to register as well.  Tuition class was set up somewhere and time and place were informed and students may enroll for the class as and when.  But then the company began to neglect the inspection of teaching certificates and also the location of the classes which led them to exit.  They brought together with them the copyright of the app.

With the management of the teachers fell under their responsibilities, immediate action was needed to resolve the issue.  That was when this organization was born. They took in the now Vice President of Strategic Planning, Mr Kim to become their education inspector.  Over the years, more teachers and tutors registered with the app and they began to take more employees.

When the app hit global users, the company began to become a corporate.  They hired people to oversee the legal aspects of education in other countries, managing finance, information technology, security, human resource and others.  They also forged relationships with NGOs to make education available and accessible to remote parts of the world. They began a volunteer teachers program. And today, the company began producing affordable stationery using recyclable materials.

The montage also showcased the company’s greatest challenges and achievements in ten years and in the end the President’s direction on forging their way forward.  Those were all the clips included in the duration of ten minutes.

And Jihyun cried when the video ended.

“Is it that bad?” Sehun asked.  “I can change it.”

Jihyun shook her head.  “It is great! I’m just… I am moved by it.  I’m pretty sure the Chiefs will be moved by it too.”

“I agree,” Jongin said.  “If this doesn’t move them, I don’t know what will.”

Kyungsoo nodded.  His eyes got teary as well but he didn’t allow the tears to roll down his cheeks.  He opened his eyes wide, trying to let the air dried up the tears.

While the others were in awe, Baekhyun snatched the opportunity that was handed to him on silver platter.  “You want to work together with me on my UNICEF project?” he asked Sehun.

Sehun looked at Baekhyun, scrutinizing whether the offer was serious.  Then his expression softened. “Email me,” he said. He looked at the others after that.  “Anything you guys want me to add or remove?” Sehun asked.

“No,” Junmyeon said.  “Nice work, Sehun!”

“Thank God!” he pressed the heel of his palm to his eyes.  “I actually want to ask you guys if I could sleep now?” Sehun wore a sheepish expression.

“Go ahead,” Kyungsoo said.  “You’re not working today.”

“Wake me up if there’s anything I need to do.  Except if it is from my office because I’m on leave today.  But, if the direction comes from the CDIO, pleas-”

“Sehun,” Jongdae warned.  “Sleep.”

And Sehun slept as soon as he hit the couch.  The others went about their business. Jongdae went to Level 10 to oversee booth set up.  Minseok was at his desk to review the speech content by the panellists. Chanyeol was stuck in front of his laptop, being the social media officer he was.  Baekhyun and Jongin held teleconference with Yixing regarding the distribution of event booklets and t-shirts to the new office. Junmyeon amended the President’s speech.

That left Jihyun and Kyungsoo to food tasting with the caterer, updating budget, enabling app for event registration, issuing security pass for guests, going through lists of standby medic etc.  The burden seems to uplift a bit when they worked in sync. And Kyungsoo continuously threw hints and Jihyun constantly pretended to not know because Kyungsoo can’t just ing see that she needed to focus.

It was obvious that Kyungsoo didn’t know how to behave around women.  He mostly would stare at the wall as if it was so important. But with Jihyun, he just ing stared.  At her. Like almost every ten seconds interval. And Jihyun wanted to slap him to the next millennium.

She kept the smile though.  After all, having someone so into her satisfied her vain human need.  But, by lunchtime, when they were both back at the operation room with the others and Kyungsoo glared at whoever it was trying to sit beside her, Jihyun began to feel like kicking him.  But she only clenched her teeth when he wore that victorious expression when he sat beside her.

She quickly took her stick-it note and wrote down a warning.  She tore up the note and moved her hand slowly under the table and stuck the note on Kyungsoo’s pants, massaged his thigh for extra effect.  She smirked when Kyungsoo stiffened and she removed her hand.

Kyungsoo looked under the table and saw the note.  “ off Kyungsoo!” Oh so Jihyun.  Classic. He thought.  He took the note from his thigh and discreetly put it into his pocket.  That was enough to make him smiled until the end of the day.

This goes into the shoebox under the bed.

+++++

Staff ID?  Checked. Tablet?  Checked. Headset? Checked.  Mobile phone? Checked. These are the important ones at least.  Kyungsoo looked at Jihyun who fumbled with her headset and took that opportunity to help her with it.

Chanyeol and Baekhyun looked at their tablets, checking out on the attendance of the opening event.  Jongin instructed his minions to get the booklet to the registration table outside the conference center, where Minseok was currently manning.  Jongdae was already in the conference centre, attended to the exhibitors’ every need. Sehun was running through the seventeen storey building for final inspection of every audio visual tools, to make sure the opening ceremony can be broadcasted throughout the building for those who couldn’t make it to the event.  Junmyeon was with the President, on standby to give them the cue.

Everything was going on very smoothly until Minseok connected with them through the headset.  “Problem at the registration table. Two tablets at the registration table are not working. They got stuck when I tried to enable the registration app.”

“.  How long do we have until people can register?” Kyungsoo already made his way to the lift, to go to Level 10.

“Event begin ten minutes from now,” Minseok said.  “The booklets are already here by the way.”

“I’m coming with the others to Level 10,” said Kyungsoo.

“Let me know if you need me to delay the Chiefs,” Junmyeon instructed.

Kyungsoo and Jongin ran to the registration table to see Minseok frantically trying to get the tablet to work.  Jihyun, Chanyeol and Baekhyun went straight to the Conference Hall to make sure things were in place for the opening ceremony.  Kyungsoo and Jongin tried their luck on making the tablet to work, but to no avail.

“Sehun.  We need you here to make this tablet work.  Can you make it here the soonest?” Kyungsoo asked.

“I’m just done with the inspection of digital screens at the final floor.  Will come down soon. Give me a minute,” Sehun answered.

“Are you kidding me?  We need Sehun at the Conference Hall to check on the audio visual for the opening,” Jihyun complained.  Kyungsoo could imagine she rolled her eyes.

“I will get to the registration table first.  It won’t take long. Plus, I’ve inspected the hall this morning.  The audio visual is working normal. But, I’ll get there before the event begin to do the final inspection on the AV if you want.  I will run if I have to. Alright?” Sehun tried to control the situation to avoid the team from disagreeing on the first day of the event.

True to his words, Sehun got to the table a minute after.  He troubleshot quickly and ran to the hall to satisfy Jihyun’s perfectionist nature.  Then, Junmyeon told them that the Chiefs were on their way from Level 17.

That was when Baekhyun notified them that the special edition event booklets designed for the Chiefs and Vice Presidents were not there on their designated seats.

“.  I’m delaying them,” said Junmyeon.  “I can only delay for two minutes guys.  So run and get the booklets.”

“I thought the booklets are on the seats already?” asked Jihyun.

“These are the normal ones, not the specially designed for VIPs ones.  Jongin’s minions must have done it wrong somewhere,” Baekhyun said.

“I’m finding the special edition.  But, all the boxes looked the same now.  But, I’ll find them real quick,” said Jongin.

After one minute, Jongin was still not there.  Kyungsoo and Jihyun had become really agitated.  The event’s MC, Suzy, readied herself in case she needed to cover the situation.  “They are at Level 10. I’m delaying them at the coffee station,” Junmyeon whispered harshly.

Jihyun panicked.  And Kyungsoo began to raise his voice.  “Damn it, Jongin! Are you finding the booklets or are you printing the booklets?”

“ you, Kyungsoo.  I found them. Already on my way,” Jongmin cursed.

“Things are fine and dandy at the booths guys,” Jongdae laughed.  “Enjoy opening. I’m gonna watch from the screen.”

“Piss off Jongdae!” Chanyeol swore.

“Not for long Jongdae.  I have a lot of people registering at the table right now,” said Minseok.  “The conference center is going to be full soon and there will be a lot of HSE incidents for you to deal with.”

“I’ll be damned,” Jongdae profaned.

“Shut up guys!” Junmyeon scolded.  “The Chiefs are here at the door. Opening in five, four, three, two, one.”

The door was opened and Suzy tapped on her mic and proceeded.  “Announcing the arrival of President and Chief Executive Officer Mr Yong, Chief Financial Officer Mr Yoon, Chief Marketing Officer Mr Yang, Chief Digital and Information Officer Mr Lee and Chief Operating Officer Mr Son.”

Jihyun was glad that Suzy was fast.  She had selected Suzy herself just to prove that women are very capable of doing a lot of things.  She smiled and congratulated herself.

The Chiefs greeted the Board of Directors and Vice Presidents before they took their seats on the couch at the middle front of the hall.  Then, Suzy proceeded with the ceremony. President was called to deliver the speech and Jihyun made a mental note to compliment Junmyeon afterwards for the great speech.

Even the great speech couldn’t stop Jihyun from distractingly staring at all the five Chiefs.  Chief Yong, who was at the rostrum, was a laid-back, cool person who had quite a temper if an analysis was not thorough.  Hence, that was the reason why only a person like Junmyeon and his colleagues could make it working at his office. They were the thorough analysts.

Chief Yoon, the person Jihyun had a huge crush on was that handsome and funny boss, who all the employees knew was kind-hearted.  If he was not currently the CFO, he would do well as an ambassador in food business. As far as Jihyun and Jongdae knew, they worked under the best Chief of the company.

Chief Yang had a quite contrast appearance to his character.  He could pass as a college student, really, but actually was the most serious among the five.  Those residing under his office must have the ability to work under pressure. It required a crackhead like Baekhyun and Chanyeol to be able to work under the CMO’s office.

Chief Lee was very close to Chief Yang, but possessed a stark different personality.  Chief Lee was bubbly and can be seen making a dumb face eighty percent of the time. But, he actually knew what he was doing and doing it quite well.  The same quality went down to staff working under his office, which was quite evident in Jongin and Sehun as well.

If people said Chief Yoon was handsome, they had not seen Chief Son.  He possessed that kind of God-sculpted face and also an aura that screamed he was only approachable to certain people only.  He was smart and most of the time he was the one making the decision and the other Chiefs will follow. Kyungsoo and Minseok had bear witness to this a few times over working under his wings.

Jihyun’s thoughts were disrupted by the loud applause from the guests.  The President’s speech had ended and they proceeded with the montage. As expected, all Chiefs had teary eyes at the end of ten-minutes video.  Chief Son even stood and clapped his heart out. The others in the hall were moved too. And Jihyun cried, actually cried, even if that was the second time she watched the montage.

They proceeded with the President officiating the event and then presenting tokens of appreciation to the the BOD.  Then, the opening ceremony was over and Junmyeon escorted the Chiefs and other VIPs to the dining area for morning snacks. Junmyeon needed to make sure the President and his executive assistant catch his flight for the launching of new office tomorrow.

Chanyeol and Baekhyun replaced Minseok at the registration table.  Minseok went to the hall to prep it for the first forum session. Sehun stayed for AV inspection and to change the battery and memory card for the video cam.  Jongin went to the exhibition center to work with Jongdae on maintaining the exhibition site. Everything was still in order so far.

And it continued to do so until the end of day one.  President got onto his flight. Minseok’s forum session was was a huge success and received huge volume of appreciative feedbacks especially on the subject of discussion and choice of panellists.  Jongdae’s exhibition went on without any safety or health issues and they could see people actually enjoyed their time over there.

Morning of the second day had tested Kyungsoo’s credibility as event manager.  Digital screens at Level 5 of the building was reportedly not functioning for the live broadcast of the office launching.  Sehun was sent to troubleshoot, after he left the set of instructions that Kyungsoo and Jihyun needed to work on with the news broadcaster.

Then, Jongdae reported that someone passed out at the exhibition site due to overcrowded.  That was already two issues - crowd control and HSE incident. Kyungsoo ended up leaving Jihyun to deal with the broadcast alone.  HSE was his job anyway. Besides, nobody else could help.

Junmyeon was on standby for Yixing’s cue on President’s arrival for the office launching.  Jongin was at Level 17, briefing the four Chiefs on the new office with brochures and everything.  Chanyeol and Baekhyun was at the registration table, manning the registration and door gift. Minseok had to entertain an urgent call from a panellists for the forum in the afternoon.

So, that left Kyungsoo feeling like .  Dealing with the crowd was one thing. Dealing with the sick person was another.  Jongdae tried to strategize movement in and out of the exhibition site. He asked a few booths to have a giveaway session at the chill area outside the center.  Kyungsoo managed to get the sick personnel an ambulance and she was sent to hospital. But Kyungsoo had a paperwork to be done and now a pending investigation.

As if that was not enough, Minseok suddenly gave them a distress call.  “Kyungsoo, Dr Kwon’s flight was cancelled. He can’t make it this afternoon.”

“!  Do you have alternatives?”

“Two.  One is finding a new panellist immediately.”

“Impossible,” said Kyungsoo.  “The second alternative?”

“Dr Kwon is willing to deliver his part through a conference call.  But, we need to set up the AV,” Minseok informed.

“Sehun, do you catch this?”

“Yes.” Sehun answered.  There was a pause before he continued.  “I’ll set up the AV. But I need to get equipment from IT first.  Will go there soon. Almost done with Level 5,” said Sehun.

“I think you have to be here at Level 10, Sehun.  One of the exhibitors is complaining because one of his digital screen is working very slowly.  It was difficult for his presentation,” Jongdae voiced.

“What?!” Kyungsoo almost shouted into his mic.  “This can’t be happening all at once.”

“Calm down,” said Sehun.  “Jongdae. Is the broken digital screen ours?  Or the one you get from vendor?”

“From the vendor.  And I’ve called them.  They said with the traffic, their ETA here is an hour.  We don’t have one hour.”

“Is the model the same as ours?” asked Sehun.

“A77 Series.  Cerebro,” Jongdae answered.

“That’s the same.  I’ll send someone to look at it.  I’ll get someone from IT,” Sehun said.

“Hey guys.  Yixing just gave the fifteen minutes heads up.  Apart from the situation at exhibition, how’s everything going on?” asked Junmyeon.

“Broadcaster, camera and mic ready.  Live broadcasting on standby,” Jihyun informed.  “Broadcaster will begin with intro in ten.”

“All screens are functioning well.  Testing Level 5 in progress. Will be ready in five.  Also no problem with live online through the intranet.  Channel shows no disruption,” Sehun reported.

“Digital screens for live broadcasting at exhibition site show no disruption,” Jongdae said.

“Good.  I expect another report in five,” Junmyeon instructed.

They reported back after five minutes.  Kyungsoo managed to get all situations under control.  Chanyeol and Baekhyun began to control the number of people going to the exhibition through the registration table.  Sehun informed that all screens were ready and he was on his way to get AV equipment for the forum in the afternoon. Jongdae thanked Sehun for sending someone for the booth digital screen.  Minseok reported no further problem with panellists. Jihyun confirmed again that live broadcast was ready.

And they went live in the next five minutes.  President arrived as scheduled. Things went on as usual.  The launching and live broadcast were a success. Even all event in the afternoon went on smoothly.  In the end of the day, Sehun collected all recordings and photos from day one to day two to be sorted and compiled for the closing ceremony montage.  They stayed a little late to throw ideas for the montage before they went home.

The final day of the event was breezy.  Junmyeon were informed that the President’s flight were on time.  He were to him from the airport at noon. Jongdae’s exhibitors were prepared for the Leadership Team to visit the booths in the afternoon.  Minseok’s morning forum went on without a single hitch. Both Jihyun and Kyungsoo were happy.

Closing ceremony was also a huge success.  All five Chiefs were at the hall again celebrating the final day of the tenth anniversary event.  All Chiefs presented award to selected, high performance people working in their office. Chief Yong closed the event with a speech, written and edited by Junmyeon of course, that touched on many challenges to come and how they were supposed to be ready to surf the tide.

When the event was over, they made sure everything was cleaned up and stored properly before making their way to the Operation Room.  It was clear to Junmyeon that the members of the organizing committee were exhausted.

Kyungsoo and Jihyun had overseen the whole event end-to-end must be glad that this was over.  Chanyeol and Baekhyun who worked so hard in promotion through emails, portals and constant update through social media etc. was slumped together on the couch.  Jongin who had executed end-to-end strategic communications and quality control can be seen smiling now that the event was over.

And Jongdae, with largest number of stakeholders in this event had shown evident exhaustion through his eyes.  Minseok, who had successfully taken care of their external stakeholders of the event, was slumped at his desk. And Sehun, who Junmyeon was unsure if he had fully recovered from his previous exhaustion, can be seen sitting on his chair, arms crossed above his chest and eyes closed.

Junmyeon had one thing that he could do for them and it is a direct order from the President.  With the corporate paycard in his hand he stepped into the room with a smile.

“Hi guys.  I know you are tired.  But, we have one thing left to do,” Junmyeon said.

“What thing?” Baekhyun asked, annoyed.  He really thought that it was over. “Like taking all the garbage and shove it down your throat so you could stop with your annoying instruction?”

Chanyeol laughed and Junmyeon rolled his eyes.  “I have booked accommodation tonight at our most prestigious partner hotel.  And we got a spa session. President’s order.”

“What?” Jihyun was the first to jump out of her chair.

“Are you serious?” Kyungsoo asked.  The others were listening attentively too.

“The corporate paycard.  Given by the President himself,” Junmyeon showed the gold card in his hand.

“.  You’re serious,” Chanyeol beamed.

“What about dinner?” Jongin looked like an excited puppy.

“Included,” Junmyeon answered.

“PJ’s provided?” asked Minseok.

“Yes.”

“Come my people.  Come. Let’s go and enjoy this treat from the Heaven,” Baekhyun said and packed his belongings.  The others smiled and followed suit.

+++++

Kyungsoo was happy.  Really, really happy.  When he sat beside Jihyun during dinner, Jihyun didn’t push him away or asked him to off.  She even allowed him to get close to her. And when their fingers brushed, she even looked at him and smiled and asked him what it was that he needed.  He almost told her that he needed her but scolded himself internally and asked for his glass of water.

Kyungsoo ended up hid the glass in his bag to be taken home.

During the spa session, she had allowed him to choose the same room as her.  She even chatted to him animatedly. And he remembered that she was fine with small talks outside of office hour.  And they were currently at the spa and it was hot and steamy to him when it really wasn’t.

Forty-five minutes of spa treatment made Kyungsoo learned that Jihyun had never dated, had a lot of guy friends and really, really feminist.  She had a temper of a lioness and Kyungsoo liked her even more for that. And most of all he learned that she actually didn’t hate him.

So at the end of the spa session, Kyungsoo walked side by side with Jihyun, knowing that she would not produce a sword and stab him.  They reached his room first and he stopped, torn between going into his room or follow her to her room

Will she allow it?

“Good night, Kyungsoo,” she said.  He thought it was enough hint that he should go into his room.

He was about to open the door when she grabbed him at his neck, pulled him down and tiptoed at the same time.  And then their lips crushed and Kyungsoo’s eyes widened and for a while he couldn’t breath, couldn’t think. It took him another second to realise that he was being kissed, by a woman he liked no less.  And so he leaned in, held her jaw gently and kissed her back.

They stayed in the same position for God knows how long, until they heard someone spoke.

“Oh.”  It was Sehun, eyes droopy and red.  He must have slept during his spa session.  “It’s about time. Both of you. Good night,” he said and entered his room, slowly closing the door.

They didn’t care if he saw it,  didn’t even care if he stayed behind the door to listen to them, to stole a look at them through the peephole.  Kyungsoo used the access card to open the door to his room and Jihyun pushed him in.

This.   This whole memory won’t fit into his shoebox under the bed.