I-DLE LTD. 

COMPANY LOG NO.003

22 JUNE 2020 

8:30 AM 

Aside from record sales and impeccable service, I-DLE prides itself in having a 9am opening time as opposed to the usual 8am start from most companies. While normally detrimental to business, I-DLE makes up for lost time with a faster work pace. Most of the workers arrive 5 to 10 minutes before opening, however, Shuhua was already present.

She was the first to arrive at the office. She punched in and began the menial tasks assigned to someone of her position. While the coffee was being made in the break room she took stock of the amount of ink in the printers, and made sure that there was ample paper in the photocopy machines. She watered the decorative plants, wishing each one a good morning as she went along. “Aigoo—” she sighed as she sat down, most of the morning work was finished. Shuhua leaned as far back as her chair would allow and closed her eyes. She breathed deeply and replayed what happened Thursday, Soojin looked softer than she usually presented herself; while disconcerting, Shuhua thought that it would be nice if she were like that more often. 

“Ha, like that’s ever going to happen,” she thought to herself as she sat back up.

 She played around on her phone while waiting for the others to arrive. Shuhua enjoyed being alone in the office, the quiet gave her time to collect herself before the busy day ahead. 

Minnie arrived next, though they wouldn’t see each other because she worked the front desk, Shuhua knew because she received a text from her saying she did. She waited patiently as her computer booted up, lost in thought as the monitor blinked to life. Shuhua opened a spreadsheet file and began sorting and clearing the company schedule, for safety inspections and the like. After she had organized the company’s timetable, she moved to work on Chief Seo’s. 

“…Nothing for the morning, set a reminder for the lunchtime meeting with Incheon’s department head; confirm her 3 o’clock briefing with the logistics team…” 

Shuhua recounted each item to herself, she was so engrossed in her work that she didn’t notice other employees settling in around her. 

“Shuhua—” 

“AH!” 

Shuhua let out a shout that caused everyone to pause and see what had happened, “Ye—yes chief, have you been waiting long?” She stuttered as she snapped out of her haze, Soojin was leaning over her, examining the schedule. “No, I just—listen, clear out my lunch hour, Chief Lee from Incheon can’t make it, the board decided to pay a surprise visit.” None of what Soojin just said meant anything to Shuhua, except for “clear my lunch hour”, which she did immediately. 

“Thank you” she said as she turned to head back to her desk. Shuhua looked around at the others, they had already dismissed the tiny commotion she had caused; feeling slightly embarrassed, she did the same. 

whirrrrrr…

Shuhua stared into the distance as she idled by the printer, waiting for it to produce the documents she had just worked on. Lost in thought, she wondered to herself what she wanted to have for lunch; Minnie had texted earlier to invite her to lunch with Miyeon, Shuhua declined out of not wanting to be a third wheel on what was essentially their lunch date. Unable to come to a decision, she resigned to "figuring something out". The printer spat out the last of the documents and Shuhua returned to her desk. She then stapled the schedules together, and did the same to a transcript of the last board meeting—along with notes she had made for the next one—before placing them in a folder for easier keeping.

 “Chief Seo, here’s the company schedule for the week along with the report of last week’s meeting, and your weekly schedule” Shuhua said meekly as she placed the folder on Soojin’s desk. “mm…thanks…I’ll look at it later…” She mumbled, staring dead eyed at her desktop, fingers racing across the keyboard as she worked. Shuhua nodded and headed back to her desk, in her head she was going through the tasks she had left before lunch when Soojin called from behind her, “Shuhua.”

“Yes Chief?” She answered, turning back around to meet her gaze. 

“Join me for lunch, I have to talk to you.” 

Shuhua flinched, a hundred thoughts raced through her mind. She tried to remember if she had done anything that would warrant a reprimand this morning and her memory came up with nothing. “O-o-okay, I mean yes, yes okay, I’ll join you” she replied, dazed as she hurried back to her workspace. She pulled out her phone and relayed her distress to Minnie, who promptly left her on read. She whispered a curse at her friend and massaged her temples, her panic had begun to manifest itself as a light headache. 

She hoped it was nothing too serious, Soojin was scary enough when she would yell at her in the office, and Shuhua had already gotten a taste of how she could be when there was no one around, she did not want to experience that again. Try as she might, Shuhua couldn’t recall any major incidents other than what happened last week—the scrapes (now light scars) were still there—however, if Chief Seo wanted to talk to her privately today then it must’ve been something she had done this morning. Shuhua shivered, she thought she had done everything well. Attempting to straighten herself, she took a deep breath and tried to resume her work; just as she did, a notification appeared: it was an email from Soojin. Shuhua hesitated for a moment before opening it.

“Shuhua, you don’t have to worry so hard; it’s nothing bad, you did fine this morning.” 

-Soo 

A wave of relief washed over Shuhua as she read the email, she lived to work another day. She read it again before actually returning to work and noticed the signature at the bottom said “Soo”. She giggled, it was cute.

I-DLE LTD. 

COMPANY LOG NO.003 [END]

22 JUNE 2020 

9:30 AM