hole-and-corner

Chapter 9. Hands Off

Handong sighed as she plopped on her swivel chair. She was quite stressed due to the impromptu meeting which had just ended a few minutes ago. They were planning to finalize all their tasks related to their project with SeeU Apparel. Lunchtime was approaching and she chatted Gahyeon to remind her of the time. She and Yubin don't usually have lunch at work together but from time-to-time, Yubin would join her and Gahyeon at the cafeteria.

Gahyeon soon walked over to her desk and Handong stood up and the two headed to the cafeteria for lunch.

"Busy with the project?" asked Gahyeon as they sat in front of each other, eating their lunch.

Handong nodded as a response. "CEO Kim is still on a meeting with Miss Lee and the other people leaders. But atleast we're near closing this project."

"Oh, I see. You'd probably do extended work later." joked Gahyeon. Handong chuckled at the remark as she clearly knew what the answer would be.

"Tomorrow, too. Most probably." She sipped on her drink and sighed. "Is it only Thursday yet? Why does the week feel so long-"

"But so fast when the deadline is approaching?"

"YES." The two both laughed at their small conversation when a man approached their table.

He was a tall man in late 20s wearing a brown suit. An employee who was recently-hired and was working under Yubin's team as well. It was just around two weeks when he joined the team and Handong was the one whom he asks to for help on work tasks. He greeted the two girls before handing something to Handong.

"What's this, Mr. Park?" asked Handong.

"Coffee. Iced cafe latte." answered the guy with a bright, confident smile.

"...what for?"

"Just to thank you for always helping me out. Really thank you. It would have been so hard coping up with work if you weren't there to help me." The bright smile shifted into a shy expression.

"You really don't have to do this. We always help each other out because we're on the same team." Handong said with a benevolent smile. "But thank you for this..."

"Thank you again, Miss Han." The guy named Mr. Park smiled at Handong before finally excusing himself out.

As soon as he was out of sight, Gahyeon commented, "What did I just witness?"

"Oh no-" Handong felt a bit stressed as she stared at the coffee on her hands.

"It's pretty obvious that he's trying to flirt with you." said Gahyeon.

"Oh, please no." That was the only thing Handong could say.

"It's quite cute seeing you stressed out like this. You sure don't see him like how he sees you." Gahyeon chuckled as she finished up her drink. "Don't think much about it. Just treat him as you normally do. He'd get tired eventually."

"Hopefully." Handong said and took a deep breath before jokingly saying... "But, hey, free coffee."

"Are we certain that we could finish everything tomorrow?" The CEO asked Yubin as the three of them remained in the conference room after the meeting ended.

"We'd push to clear everything tomorrow.", answered Yubin sternly.

"Then, I'd contact SeeU Apparel to inform them that we're sticking to the original plan." Bora followed up. "It's rare to see you nervous, Jiu."

"I am. Really. I didn't expect we'd run into a huge issue right when the deadline is near. Glad it has been resolved. But we'd be needing to do extra work now." Minji said as she sighed, stressed out of the predicament. "I'm sorry. If I had planned it well, we wouldn't need to worry about trivial things like this."

There was silence after that. Usually, Minji is calm and composed at handling things but she is at a mess right now. Probably due to the huge pressure she was putting on herself or maybe because she hasn't been sleeping well since the start of the week. Bora approached her and patted her back gently.

"You should really rest for today. We'd handle everything until we finish all our open tasks, right Yubin?" said Bora as she looked concernedly at Minji.

Yubin nodded in response before saying. "You trust us, right? That's why you hired us for this job."

"Of course, I do. It's just that I-" Minji sighed, slightly calming down, coming back to her senses. "Okay, I'll do that. But please update me with the progress from time-to-time."

"Sure." The two said in unison, happy to finally see a small smile on Minji's face.

"Okay then. Let's go get some lunch before I go." Minji suggested, finally reminded that she didn't even eat breakfast today.

The three of them walked to the cafeteria. Yubin's eyes surveyed the room discreetly, trying to spot if Handong was there. She then spotted that blonde hair on a corner, sitting with a purple-haired girl and the new employee standing close, handing what seems to be a drink to Handong. Her facial expression was stern as usual but there was this heavy weight on her stare as she couldn't take her eyes off them.

"Yubin, what are you getting?" Minji's voice seemed to get her back to reality and quickly chose her food. As they were walking back, she darted her eyes back to where Handong was and the man was still there, talking...

Until the moment they settled on their table, Yubin took a deep breath and sighed before looking again back to her target. The man finally was going away... from Handong, her girlfriend.

That stressed her out a bit. She has been noticing that this new employee was always asking Handong for help and probably trying to get close to her too. And she doesn't like what she was feeling about it.

Yubin composed herself and for one last time, looked at where Handong was only to find her looking back, showing a quick smile. She smiled back at her girlfriend, her worries slowly going away.

The day passed by quickly and the busy room turned quiet as soon as the shift ended. There were quite a number of people doing overtime work, of course Yubin and Handong were present. The sound of typing on their keyboards filled the room. Everyone was focused on their tasks,

"I'm done here, Miss Lee." Handong announced as she saved the file.

"I'll go check it." Yubin said as she opened Handong's file. She browsed it carefully and nodded. "Perfect. Could you test-print these?"

"Sure. Would you like some coffee? I could grab some on my way back." asked Handong.

Yubin smiled at her, fluttered at the thoughtful question. "Yes, please. Thank you." She answered in a small voice.

"Okay. Be right back in a few minutes." She smiled back and headed out.

Yubin got back to what she was doing. Things were going smoothly as planned and she was just quite relieved that it felt like they would really make it on time until tomorrow night. A few minutes passed and she hears Handong's voice in a distance, chuckling, which made her turn her head only to find her talking to the new employee, Mr. Park.

She felt this sudden burst of feelings of irritation as she stared heavily at the two. Trying to compose herself, she nonchalantly looks back to her laptop. Mr. Park then excuses himself to go back to his station...

"Miss Lee..." Handong gently called out her name.

Yubin took a deep breath before looking at Handong who was reaching out her arm, handing her a canned coffee. She was smiling brightly at her and the weird feeling somehow vanished away. "Thank you, Miss Han..."

They then went back to their tasks and as hours passed, some of the employees who already finished their tasks are starting to pack up and go home. It was past 8pm already and Handong and Yubin were the only ones left.

"Miss Lee, how's it going?" The two of them didn't notice the door opening and the familiar voice startled Yubin a bit.

"CEO Kim!" She immediately turned around in awe, looking at the unexpected guest.

"I couldn't stay still at home without checking out what's happening here." She said with a smile. "It's past 8 already, why are you two still here?"

"We're just finishing something up. But here are the test prints we did for the brochure." Yubin said as she handed a folder to the CEO who then scrutinized the contents carefully.

"Wow! This is perfect!" She said while nodding in approval. "You two really did great."

"Thank you, Miss Kim." The two said in unison and it made Minji chuckle.

"You are even in-sync now." commented the CEO. "Why not wrap it up for today and let's grab some dinner? I'd just take you two home. You live in the same apartment building if I remember correctly?"

"We'd pack up in 15mins at most-"

"Are you making your boss wait?!" Minji jokingly said in a soft voice, almost a whisper.

Yubin, who was feeling a bit laid back at the moment, responded with a simple "Yes." which made the three of them chuckle.

Kim Minji, a fourth-year student on the university taking up a business management course, is one of the top students of the university and is very famous among other students. Others have described her as perfect, like some sort of a genius. She excels in academics and have quite the talent for photography and arts. She could sing and dance too and was doing good in athletics as well. She is beautiful and rich.

It was during a photography exhibit when she met the first year student, Lee Yubin. She was bright, bubbly and was really interested in photography at that time. She even did part-time jobs during the summer vacation so she could buy herself a nice camera.

The photography exhibit featured photos taken by budding amateur artists and Minji submitted few of her shots and was chosen to be displayed. She was hanging around the event, looking at the other photographs when she noticed Yubin who was also walking around, looking at each shot for a good amount of time and taking some notes.

She was curious as to what the girl was up to and decided to follow her for a little while.

"Hey. What are you doing?" Minji abruptly called out to Yubin.

"Are you talking to me?" The girl asked nonchalantly. She knew who she was. Everyone at school knew her. The perfect student, Kim Minji.

"Yes. I'm Kim Minji, by the way. Sorry for the belated introduction." She said politely, reaching out for a handshake.

"I'm Lee Yubin. I know you. Everyone at school does." She replied as she shook her hand gently. "By the way, to answer your question. I am looking around taking notes since taking photos here is prohibited."

"Ironic, right? Since it's a photography exhibit." Her dry sense of humor was the only thing that Minji lacks.

"Is that supposed to be a joke?" Yubin said as she looked at her judgingly. It was the first time she interacted with Minji but rumors say that she likes to tell dad jokes and puns from time-to-time and gue