Wendy got her two weeks notice shortly after and everyone around her didn't even see it coming. She found the slip on her desk first thing in morning.

Irene really does keep her word. She set it on top of her folder and sat down at her desk. She was so used to this job, she wasn't sure how it would feel not being so busy.

Guess the job hunt begins again.

--

Wendy sent at least a thousand job applications in the last two weeks since she lost her job -- at her own request of course. So far she'd gotten a few interviews and was waiting for any updates while she lounged at home for the first time in a while. 

She still went to see Irene, but tried to keep it to a once in a week thing because it felt like Irene was pushing them too fast. 

Wendy felt like she didn't know a lot about irene despite the time they did spend together. Irene never went too deep with her background. Most of their conversation was surface stuff - work, plans, food, interest, hobbies. Sure, they were still early and Wendy would never give herself away so easily.

But the intention behind Irene's interest to date her was still up in the air. 

"Girl, she's just attracted to you. Can't you just accept that?" Joy told her when Wendy brought it up again.

"Yeah but when we were at the beach house, irene said a wierd thing."

"Well, what did she say?"

"Something like Irene just shot her shot and that's what 'they' told said to do. I asked her what she meant by that, but she didn't say."

"hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm..."

When Joy lets out a prolonged hum like that, Wendy knew that Joy was cooking up a plan that she definitely didn't want to be a part of.

"We need to find out who!" her friend declared with a finger in the air. "Don't worry, Wendy, I"ll help you. You just keep doing what you're doing and I, Detective Joy, will be in the background to solve this mystery!"

"Maybe we should jjust leave it alone," wendy shook her head. "I'll let things play out and I'll find out that way. Besides, maybe if we get closer, she'll spill."

"I like how you think, babe."

A couple weeks later, Wendy managed to snag a couple interviews, which she thought went quite well. Her ious job working under Sehun mainly had to do with keeping up and organizing his schedule, making sure he didn't miss any deadlines or meetings. She did some paper filing, but her main duty was to basically keep him up with the dailies. 

She wasn't looking for that kind of work. Too stressful and after dealing with his , she wasn't too keen on running around here and there for someone else.

The positions she had applied for were more office duties and front desk work. 

"So how'd the interview go?" Irene asked on their date, which was strolling a street walk with vendors and music. 

"I think it was better than i expected," WEndy replied. "Just waiting to hear back now."

"Ok." Irene had tried to offer assistance, but Wendy didn't want to use Irene's success as a buffer to get her somewhere. She believed in getting things on her own. 

"Anyway, how's your week been?" Wendy changed the subject. 

"Busy...I miss seeing you in the same building." 

Sometimes, Wendy couldn't believe that Irene was older than her and a CEO at that. Honestly, couldn't believe she was an adult past her college years the way she acted sometimes. Like that time they made out in the janitor's closet.

"That just makes the dates more special right?" Wendy tried to make it into a positive twist.

That seemed to put a smile on Irene's face as she agreed wholeheartedly and intertwined their fingers. "Let's not talk about work when we meet." Irene added. 

"Ok..." Wendy after all this time, still wasn't exactly sure how to talk to Irene outside of work stuff. They usually kept conversations on the surface, never too deep, never much more than small talk like stuff. Sort of felt like they were teetering on a tight rope walk. "Well...what should we talk about?"

Irene hummed. "Let's check that out." she pointed to a random shop no to far from them.

Turned out it was a record shop, and Wendy being a music fanatic couldn't help but gush over the classics and music she recognized. Perhaps it was luck luck for her, and lucky for Irene who got to see Wendy's whole demeanor change in front of her. A new side she hadn't experienced before.

Perhaps Wendy was right that not working together was a conflict of interest. Seemed like they could breathe a little more, especially Wendy.

"Have you listend to any of these?" Wendy exclaimed to Irene, pointing to a rack of LPs. 

"Hmmm....probably on the radio at some point in the past," irene mused. She wasn't much a music person and was too busy being Irene Bae that she really didn't have much time to pay attention to music - or even to remember what she listened to in her childhood.

"Hey, they have CDs over there." Wendy's attention immediately moved on from whatever she was looking at a second ago. "What music do you like, Irene?"

"I don't really listen to things much."

A few minutes later, Irene found herself standing behind Wendy who purchased like five CDs, and they were back in the car playing some tunes. 

"Its....nice..." Irene tried to think of something to show her appreciation. 

"It'll grow on you. Here, keep them." Wendy took the CD cases out of teh bag and put them in the console. "My gift to you. You know, if you ever feel stressed or need to clear your head, sometimes listening to music helps with that."

---

"Well, Son Seungwan, we're pleased with the interview and your resume looks admirable," Wendy's new potential boss, Eunbi, said over the phone. "Out of all the applicants, we think yours stood out the most. We would be hapy to add you to the team. You may come in tomorrow for your training as my new assistant."

WHAT THE ?!

"Ah, wait just want to clear things up quickly," Wendy said. "My application as HR assistant? was that accepted?"

"Ah yes, we felt that your skillset was too advanced for that. Therefore, we have boosted you up to be my assistant. If you like, you may be promoted to secretary later."

Wendy felt slightly unsure, but she did need a job asap. It was getting up to the 3rd month without one.

"Well, what are my hours going to look like in this case?" she asked.

"It will be a 9-5. When i have meetings, you will attend with me, including overseas. You will be covered by the company so don't worry about that."

"..."

"I'll give you 72 hours to decide if you need more time, maybe you have other prospective jobs? I dont' want to rush you into things."

So far, Wendy hadn't heard from her other interview results. Though this was not what she was expecting, she decided that beggars can't be choosers.

"Miss Eunbi, I would be delighted to join your team."

"Great! See you tomorrow at 9! I'll have someone meet you at the reception area to show you around and get you acquainted with everything."

"Sounds great. Thanks. See you then."

When Wendy relayed the good news to Joy, her friend was overjoyed and happy for her although the mixup sounded real sus. HOwever, they decided not to dwell over that and at least rejoice that Wendy wasn't going to go homeless (not like Irene would let it happen anyway).

When she told Irene, the aftermath was not quite waht Wendy was expecting. But Irene never was one to be overly expressive since she was calm and collected most of the time except when they were making out of something.

"That's...good," Irene finally said after what felt like 4 minutes.

"Ur...is everything ok?" Wendy asked.

Irene seemed indifferent and didn't answer the question. "So to celebrate, we should do something tomorrow. After your first day. What time are you out?"

Wendy was slighlty puzzled at Irene's choice of words. "I'm supposed to get out at 5pm."

"Ok. See you then."

"But - "

The line closed and Wendy was left wondering why she got the cold treatment from Irene Bae.

---

hey y'all. sorry for the long break. hope this is enough for now :)

bye.