Monday

When the weekend came, unlike Yuri who went out of town with a couple of our friends, I on the other hand decided to stay at home and pretty much did nothing but laze around and daydreamed some more, as if my weekday daydreaming is not enough.

So here I am at my desk, cleaning before I shove myself with reports and meetings, while my office mates are all too engaged with their weekend gossip. 

And as always, I turn my head to look at the wall clock and it reads 8:30. Perfect. I still have 30 minutes to grab a quick breakfast before my first meeting. I was about to stand when I accidentally saw a glimpse of Tiffany speed walking, heading towards her office, I stood up immediately and for a second I  thought I was just daydreaming again. My eyes blinked once then blinked again for the second and third time.

It was Tiffany. 

Definitely Tiffany. 

My eyes went back to the wall clock that now reads 8:35...hmm that's weird..she’s way too early to come to work. I was too dumbstruck and just standing still with my eyes now glued to the glass wall of our department when I felt a nudge at the side of my arm..when I turned it was Yuri finally arriving 35 minutes late as always.

“Why do you look dumbstruck? Something happened?” She sat on her chair and her computer before looking at me.

“Uhmm I saw Tiffany.” I stared at her computer screen now booting up.

“Oh yeah,” she smiled at me before scratching the back of her head, “right I forgot to tell you...Tiffany has a presentation today at the board meeting so she came early .. I guess to prepare more? But yeah...she’s here because of that.”

I scrunch my forehead for a bit and asked “and you know this because...?”

“We were at the smoking area.” she said casually. Typical Yuri.

“So…you were late because you went to smoke?”

“Yep!” her computer now , she locked it and stood up, gesturing to me to follow her, “we had a little chat.” she held my arm and pulled me towards the empty pantry.

“You were late! Again!” I repeated, “If Mr. Kang finds out you will get an earful of nagging again.”

“Relax will ya? Tiffany is a good friend of Mr. Kang...I’m sure she’ll explain it to him.”

“Still Yuri.” she nods her head and goes to grab a cup to make coffee, “I’ve been telling you to quit smoking but you keep ignoring me.”

“Oh c’mon Taeng? I’ve been hearing it from my parents and our friends...not you too.” she sighed as she sat and gave me her not so cute puppy eye look.

“Oh enough with acting cute...we’re just concerned...its not healthy and you of all people should know that.” I went ahead to make my own coffee and sat across her.

“Look I know that okay?” She sips her coffee and looks around the room before looking back at me, “are you not curious about what Tiffany and I talked about?” She emphasized the name of the person I’ve been having a crush on. 

“What is it about?”

“Well...turns out her birthday is coming up.” she says giddily. 

Birthday? 

“What do you mean?”

“You dumb, was I not clear? Her birthday is coming up you fool.” she enunciated the word even more.

“Really?” I scrunch my nose for a bit and thought that I gotta do something...like something special for her.

“You’re not gonna ask when?” Yuri eyed me with her teasing smirk.

“Wh..when?” 

“This Saturday. She’s turning 27 this Saturday and she….” she sips her coffee like no intention on continuing her sentence.

“She...? She.. what Yuri?” I grabbed her arm that was holding the cup and shook it forcefully, spilling out its coffee.

“Ay yah! Taeng! Watch it will ya?” She grabs a napkin and dabs it against her white pants. I rolled my eyes, she's acting as if her pants were stained.

“She what Yuri? What are you trying to say?”

She placed the coffee down and gave me another smirk.