. . . 

Yongsun taps her pen against in an irritated manner, as she watches one of her writers attempt to carry out the interview with the star of the upcoming issue: Maria. They were all sat in her office (much to her annoyance because usually interviews did not take place in lead editor Kim Yongsun's office but rather in an empty, quiet office located that was anywhere but here), and had been for the past 45 minutes, making no progress whatsoever in terms of the interview. She sighs quietly to herself at the thought of having to dedicate a two page spread to this insufferable girl - hell, she would be estatic if she even manages to fill a quarter of a page at this rate. This was not the first time that the singer-songwriter was gracing the front cover of Chic, so one would think that Yongsun would be used to her antics by now (she was not). Maria had a way of getting under Yongsun's skin and seemed to thrive on making the brunette's work life much more stressful than normal until she is left foaming at in anger. Take today for example. As mentioned, interviews certainly did not take place in Yongsun's office, her employees know that and Maria definitely knew that but alas, a special request was made and here we are. Not to mention, Yongsun had to skip lunch today in order to accomadate her schedule which was futile because Maria ended up turning up 30 minutes late anyway. Her excuse was that her previous schedule ran a bit late but Yongsun had an inkling that the girl had purposefully shown up late, just to rile her up . . . the girl seemed to have a personal vendetta against her. 

"How was LA?" Yongsun asks with a tight-lipped smile, as an effort for a silent truce to be made for the duration of the interview.

Maria tilts her head, lost in thought for a moment as she ponders on her response, to which Yongsun sits up straight, her eyes gleaming with anticipation because finally, they were getting somewhere with this interview, "Warm." . . . Or not.

The brunette feels her left eye twitch in annoyance and lets out a humourless laugh, "I bet. How was the writing process for the new album?"

Maria shrugs in response and focuses her attention on her nails, "Good."

Yongsun slumps her shoulders in defeat and with a sigh, she dismisses the writer. The two girls stare at her each other, not wanting to be the first one to break contact - a weird way in establishing authority. "Clearly you're not in a talkative mood today. Shall we pick this up some other day?"

"I thought that conversation was riveting," she says with a sly smile, "Perhaps it's you that seems to not be in a talkative mood today."

Yongsun clenches her fist, “Listen. I don’t know what your problem is, but you are being an annoying little–”

"I'm famished, let's grab dinner." Maria says, jumping up from her seat with an expectant look at Yongsun who stares back gapingly.

"I..What?" she says, confused and taken aback at the sudden change in demeanor. 

"I'm hungry," the girl replies slowly and nods towards the door, "let's go and then I'll tell you all about my trip to LA." 

Wordlessly, Yongsun allows herself to be pulled up from her office chair and tugged along by the sleeve of her jacket by the younger girl. She would not admit this to anyone but herself but a part of her was afraid of this girl. Fearing the repercussions of not giving her what she wanted, Yongsun opts to humour the girl and allows herself to be dragged to the elevator. Thankfully, it doesn't take long for the elevator to arrive at the lobby of the building, the thought of being confined in a small space with Maria made Yongsun quiver slightly in fear. As the two girls step into the lobby, Jinah comes into view carrying a bag presumably with food. 

Her friend throws her a confused look over her shoulder as they both walk in opposite directions. Whilst Yongsun throws her an apologetic smile, her friend pouts and points to her bag, indicating that she had bought dinner for the both of them. 

'Help me!' Yongsun mouths to her

Jinah frowns and brings her hand to her ear, 'What? I can't hear you.'

Yongsun gives her supposed friend the middle finger as she mentally prepares herself for the next few hours.

. . . 

Yongsun pokes at her ridiculously small portioned meal with her fork while the girl sitting opposite her munches happily away at her steak. 

"You haven't touched your food. Do you not like it?" Maria enquires with a raised brow

"No, it's fine." she replies, popping a small piece of meat into with a small smile. Truthfully, it was the restuarant that she had an issue with. Out of all places, Maria had to choose the one place that she and Theo had frequented. After their breakup, Yongsun had made a mental note to avoid this place at all costs in fear of running into him while he was on a date with a girl that could give him everything that she couldn't.

In an attempt to steer clear from drifting back into an awkward silence, Yongsun asks, "So how long are you here for?"

Maria shrugs, "It depends on how long it takes for you to eat your food." 

The older girl gives her an exasperated sigh, a clear indication that that was not what she had meant by her question.  

A moment later the younger girl relents, "I guess until I finish my promotions," 

"I see."

"Or until my next controversy," she says as an afterthought

"Well, let's up hope that doesn't happen."

"Why? Do you like having me around?" the girl says monotonously

"Not particularly. But I do think you are talented and it's hard to appreciate it when you're spending your time jetting to and fro rather than showcasing that talent."

"I'm going to take that as a compliment." 

"Can I ask you something?"

"Isn't that the whole point?"

"What?"

"Well, you're meant to asking me things. This is an interview."

Yongsun frowns and points her knife between the both of them in a back and forth motion, "This is the interview?" 

"Yeah. I was waiting for you to start bombarding me with your questions when we sat down but you never did."

"So you're telling me that the 20 minutes that we sat in silence earlier while waiting for our food, was meant for me to be asking you questions?" she says slowly

Maria nods, "You really need to work on your interpersonal skills."

Yongsun drops her knife and fork with a clang as it hits her plate and slumps back into her seat in a frustrated manner, "I really don't understand you."

"No one does."

"I have a ton of work that needs to be done and here you are wasting my time."

"You're the one who agreed to dinner," Maria shoots back with a glare, "Take reponsibility for your own actions." 

Yongsun scoffs and reaches towards her glass of red wine, "I don't even know why you asked me to dinner," she mutters.

"Because we're friends." Maria says in a straightforward manner, to which Yongsun chokes on her wine and throws her an incredulous look, "Friends? What gave you that impression?"

Maria gives her a sympathetic smile which irked the older girl because it seemed more patronising than comforting, "You look like you could have more friends. And judging by your reactions to my friendly banter, I'd say you are worthy to be included in my inner friends circle." she states

Yongsun rolls her eyes, "Gee, thanks very much. What an honour."

Maria fails to detect the noticeable sarcasm and waves her hand in a dismissive manner, "You can call me by my real name."

"I prefer not to call you at all."

"You can drop the 'playing-hard-to-get' charade." Maria juts her chin towards Yongsun's barely touched food, "Eat up, we're going drinking after this."

Oh boy. 

. . . 

Yongsun stumbles into her pitch black apartment trying her hardest not to knock anything over but failing miserably. She winces as she hears the stack of paper behind her fall onto the floor bur decides that future Yongsun can take care of that. Right now she desperately needed to be out of her stuffy work clothes, out of these dreadful and painfully high heels and into her silk pajamas under a mountain of soft blankets. She waddles further into her appartment and throws her handbag aside, not knowing where it lands but hears it crash onto the floor somewhere. After a slight moment of panic of trying to find her misplaced phone (she was holding it), she slowly begins to shed her clothes and starts a trail of clothing towards her room. 

It was half an hour later when Yongsun finally slinks onto her bed and allows herself to be embraced by her fuzzy blanket and duvet. Not only did her impromptu shower wash away the smell of tequila, but also her tiredness as well it seemed. She turns her head to the side at the sound of her phone vibrating against her wooden bedside table. She stretches her arm towards it and groans as it was no one near enough to grab it which meant that she had to move. With a loud sigh, she rolls her whole body to the side of her bed and reaches out again to grab the phone. 

(3) New messages from Maria.

 Yongsun clicks on the thread of messages.

Maria [12:55am]: text me when you get home

Maria [1:14am]: What part of 'text me when you get home' do you not understand??

Maria [1:29am]: whatever, idc.

She hurriedly types out a message.

Yongsun [1:30am]: home.

It takes only a few moments before she hears her phone buzz again.

Maria [1:32am]: Good. Still can't believe your low alcohol tolerance lol rest up you lightweight.

Yongsun glares at the message, tosses her phone to the side and settles back into her bed, waiting for sleep to take over. She frowns when her phone buzzes again.

'Ignore it. Go to sleep.' She urges herself.

'Ugh but it could be important,' 

'Sleep.'

'Open it and then sleep.' she reasons with herself and with that she reaches for her phone again.

(1) New message from Moonbyul (tech girl) [1:38am]: hey, found another good movie for you to watch! It's called Hunt for the Wilderpeople!! Watching it right now :) It's quite funny.

Upon seeing that it was a text from Moonbyul and not another insulting text from Maria, Yongsun turns on her side whilst typing out her reply with a smile.

Yongsun [1:38am]: Noted. You should be sleeping 

Moonbyul (tech girl) [1:39am]: So should you. 

Yongsun [1:40am]: Can't sleep 

Moonbyul (tech girl) [1:41am]: Ditto. 

Moonbyul (tech girl) [1:41am]: How was your day?

Yongsun [1:43am]: tiring. had a realllllllly long interview today with an annoying girl

Moonbyul (tech girl) [1:44am]: lol. Sounds draining! Was she that bad?

Yongsun [1:45am]: yes. celebrities are the absolute worst sometimes.

Moonbyul (tech girl) [1:46am]: hahaha I bet you have a lot of interesting stories 

Yongsun [1:47am]: Indeed. Ones that are capable of ruining reputations :)

Moonbyul (tech girl) [1:47am]: Oooooh scandalous. I'm guessing you can't share?

Yongsun [1:47am]: Afraid not. But they are veryyyyyyy scandalous indeed

Moonbyul (tech girl) [1:48am]: You tease. :(

Yongsun [1:49am]: lol. Am I distracting you from your movie?

Moonbyul [1:49am]: Nah, I have it paused. 

Moonbyul [1:49am]: I'd rather talk to you :) (if you still don't feel tired)

Yongsun [1:50am]: Not a bit :) 

. . . 

The two girls end up talking until sunrise before Moonbyul sends her a reluctant goodbye text saying that she had to try and squeeze in a few hours of sleep before her shift at work. Yongsun could not help but feel guilty that she kept her awake for so long and she told her as such, to which the girl replied with, "Don't be. I like talking to you :)" 

Yongsun smiles as she reads over the message yet again and finds herself thinking, 'Ditto.' 

. . . 

author's note: 

this took ridiculously long to write lol. many apologies for the long wait. I'm not even sure if i like it but the more i stare at it the more i'll end up changing things again...

anyway, i hope you enjoy. if you're still reading this story after all this time, then i salute you. leave comments! :)