Wendy Son had a good night's sleep. She remembered having a soju night with her best friend, Joy, last night and the alcoholic drink helped the sleeping so much better. They weren't wasted; it was just a laid-back, relaxed session, enough to get them both tipsy and call it a day. She had earned it. After a dreadful week of workload at the publishing house, she definitely deserved to have a little fun sometimes. Well, that fun last night involved a lot of kissing for sure, so yes, for the most part, it was indeed fun.

Wait. What?

Her eyes snapped wide open after realizing what happened. Joy and I kissed?? No. No. It must be a dream.

She was pretty certain it had to be a dream because, seriously, it would not really make sense for her to be kissing her best friend in real life. But then, it had been a seriously strange dream.

She rubbed the sleep from her eyes and was met with a little sunbeam peeking through the window. It felt like a peaceful and beautiful Sunday morning. She considered starting it with a hot cup of coffee, some toast, and a good book. When she reached for her phone to check the time, the day displayed on the screen made her scrunch up her eyebrows in confusion.

MONDAY 9:31 AM

There had to be a mistake. She and Joy never did soju on a Sunday night; it was always on Saturdays. She jumped out of bed in a panic and marched over to the full-length mirror in her bedroom to confront herself. She must still be dreaming. But what she saw in the mirror proved her otherwise.  Her eyes widened in horror as she frantically examined the highly visible red mark on her neck.

She stared at her phone, wishing once more that she could just wake up from this nightmare and the date on the screen would magically change. But it didn't. The screen went dark from inactivity and then suddenly blared to life with a loud ringtone playing Red Velvet's "Power Up," which startled the blonde. She cursed herself, wondering why it had to be Joy of all people.

"Joy... I.. I'm.. Last night.."

"Ya! You overslept, did you?!"

Wendy has to pull the phone away from her ears because of Joy's loud voice. Why does she have to shout? Jeez.

"Ya! You have to get your up and hurry! Your boss will kill you."

"Wait, it doesn't make sense. It was soju night last night and it was Saturday."

". You have totally lost track of days and time overworking yourself with that manuscript and that secretarial job of yours, huh?"

"What?"

"Ya! remember last Saturday when you said we couldn't do Soju Sunday because of that manuscript you had to send to your boss? Well, you moved it to last night. I even reminded you that you had to work today, and you said you could handle it."

".", the short-haired blonde muttered. "Look. About last night. I'm not really sure what happened but—."

"Oh for 's sake, Wendy. We both agreed it was nothing and we have just done it for fun. Stop acting weird. We can talk about it later during your break. Right now, you should hurry up or you can say goodbye to that dream promotion of yours."

Wendy let out a heavy sigh. "Fine."

"Don't forget to drop by the café. I'll prepare the usual for you and the boss."

—---------------------------------------------------------

Lucky for Wendy, her apartment was just a quick 10-minute hop from the publishing spot, and Joy's café was conveniently on the way. She could still make it before 10am. She could drop by the café for the coffees and would still have time to and then dash to the publishing builidng. She had to be there before the boss. The woman was already tormenting her with loads of work, and she didn't want to give the witch another reason to be as pissed off as she probably had been her whole life. Glancing at her wrist watch, it's already 9:46. If she hadn't spent so much time deciding what to wear to conceal the hickey on her neck, she wouldn't be in such a rush now. She eventually decided with a Band-aid since wearing a scarf in this weather would only draw more attention. She could make up with something like accidentally hurting her neck or whatever. Gaaad. That's so lame.

Facing Joy is another issue. Why the hell did they do that? She vaguely remembers Joy teasing her about about not getting laid for a long time and her mischievous friend wants her to remember what a kiss feels like. The alcohol in her system must have made her agree to that. But if it's just a kiss, why the hell does she have a hickey? A lot of touching and must've been involved.

UGH. Wendy groaned and wasted no time swinging open the door to her best friend's café. There was no time to contemplate whether she'd grab that coffee or not. It shouldn't even be a question. She absolutely had to get that coffee. Her evil boss needs that coffee.

It was a long line to the counter but she already saw Joy approaching her with two tall cups of coffee in her hand.

"Uh. Hi.", she said awkwardly, panting like crazy.

"," Joy rolled her eyes. "Here are your regular coffees—one for the boss and one for her super cute secretary." The tall brunette smiled, her gaze traveling from the blonde's heels to her pencil-cut skirt and simple white polo blouse.

"Stop it.", Wendy blushed. "Lunch later?"

"Yeah. Whatever. Get out of here.", Joy shooed her away.

—---------------------------------------------------------

Finally entering the Reve Publishing building, Wendy made her way to the elevator. She almost missed the ride, but fortunately, there was still room for one more person inside the lift.

"You're cutting it close, Ms. Son.", said the floor receptionist as Wendy entered the floor.

"Yes. One of those mornings. Good morning to you too, Ms. Obvious.", she was about to give the receptionist an eye roll but the blonde bumped into something, earning a few gasps from the few employees who witnessed the little incident.

"Holy !" she cursed as one of the coffee cups spilled on her shirt. She noticed it was the old messenger guy with his cart full of documents and envelopes, and she couldn't stay mad anymore. She took a deep breath to push away her frustration, reminding herself that the old man didn't mean it.

"I'm so sorry, Ms. Son. I did not see you.", he said with a tired apologetic gaze.

"It's okay, Gramps.", she said. "Please be careful next time.", she said, throwing a soft smile to the old man.

Since there was no time for chit-chat, she called over the janitor to clean up the mess and hurriedly made her way to a certain colleague's cubicle.

"Somi, I need your cardigan. Now," the blonde demanded.

The girl looked up at her. "You're kidding, right?" Her colleague's eyes furrowed as she inspected Wendy's coffee-soaked shirt.

"Two Eat-All-You-Can Korean Grill gift certificates for your cardigan. You have 5 seconds to decide."

"Wha-"

"5. 4. 3. –"

Somi handed the cardigan to Wendy, who immediately put it on to cover the stain marks on her shirt. She grabbed a small mirror from her colleague's desk and checked her face, wiping away the remaining sweat she had earned from running through the streets of New York just to get there.

She noticed that Somi's computer screen lit up with a message from the employees' group chat that said, "IT'S HERE," and that was enough to get Wendy's moving.

The blonde could see everyone on the floor scrambling to their feet to return to their stations. Some simply wanted to avoid the boss, as they had no desire for an encounter with the witch. Others stopped and tossed aside whatever quick snack they were eating, and many pretended to be on a phone call. Suddenly, everyone appeared busy with something. Even her colleague, Somi, had begun typing away on her keyboard, acting completely engrossed in her computer screen, unwilling to draw any attention from the woman everyone feared in the company.

Wendy could understand why everybody acted this way. It wasn't anything new to her; it was an everyday scenario inside the publishing house. The infamous editor-in-chief was pushy, mean, arrogant, and lacked empathy. She was disliked by everyone in the company. Wendy herself couldn't fathom how she managed to put up with her boss's y attitude. The woman was always cold and aloof, constantly focusing on business and work as if it were the only things that mattered in her life. Wendy had been her secretary and personal assistant for almost two years now, yet she had never managed to penetrate or even crack the chief's thick walls. Rumor had it that before Wendy was hired, no secretary had stayed longer than a month due to the pressure of the chief's demands.

Wendy waited inside the chief's office, standing by the door with a cup of coffee in her hand. She quickly smoothed down her skirt and ran a finger through her hair, wanting to look as presentable as possible in front of the woman. Despite her strong dislike for the boss, Wendy recognized that this woman might still play a significant role in achieving her dream job as an editor.

"Good morning, boss.", she greeted, handing the coffee to the woman.

The boss took the coffee from her and proceeded to her huge oak table. "You have a conference call in 30 minutes. Ms. Bae," the secretary said.

"Yes. About the marketing strategy for the Queendom Books. I know.", Irene Bae, the editor-in-chief of Reve Publishing Inc., answered nonchalantly as she started scanning the files on her table.

"Budget meeting at 9am."

"Did you send an invitation to the finance head? I want him to be there."

Yes, I did. He confirmed his attendance. Also, your immigration lawyer called. She said it's urgent and that you need—"

"Call her and let her know I'll write her a check. Tell her to continue with what she's being paid for."

Wendy let out a sigh but she kept it as quietly as possible. "Copy that.", she said as she handed out some important documents for the chief to sign.

"Also, get in touch with the PR team and have them start drafting a press release for the launch of Kingdom Come. We've confirmed an official release date."

Although the boss had an unpleasant attitude, Wendy couldn't help but still give her credit for her dedication to her role and how she kept everything running under her management.

"Wow, nice work with that."

"If I want your praise, I'll ask for it," Irene said.

Wendy immediately retracted the compliment she had given in her head. She tried her best not to roll her eyes at the chief's snarkiness.

The blonde was about to leave the office and head to her station to do some paperwork when Irene called her attention.

"Uh, who's Joy?" Irene asked, holding the cup of coffee Wendy had bought for her a while ago. "And why does she want me to call her?" She showed Wendy the part of the cup where Joy had apparently written "CALL ME" with a teasing wink emoticon.

Ugh. Joooooooooy!

It was probably to about last night. She didn't notice the note earlier and it was really unfortunate that it was Irene's cup that was spilled.

"Uhm, she's my.. She's my be–"

"Is she the one who marked you?", Irene asked, eyeing the band-aid on her neck.

A tinge of pink crept onto Wendy's cheeks when she was reminded of last night's event. It really wasn't any of the chief's business, but Wendy couldn't just tell her to off and mind her own business, could she?

Irene still seemed to be waiting for an answer. "This.. this is.. I scratched myself pretty badly... It... It bled.", she managed to say. "And that was originally my cup."

"And I'm drinking your coffee, why?"

"Because your coffee spilled."

"Hmmm.", the chief took a sip from the cup. "So, you drink brown sugar oat milk shaken espresso?"

How did she even know that drink?

"Yes, the taste is phenomenal."

"Hmm. You're lucky it suits my taste."

Of course it would suit your taste. Like I said, the taste is phenomenal. Wendy was about to come up with a sassy response to the chief's comment when Ms. Bae's phone started ringing. As her personal assistant and secretary, Wendy answered the phone on behalf of the chief.

"Good morning. This is Ms. Bae's office... Oh, hey, Ms. Jennie Kim. Okay, please wait a second," she glanced at Irene as she cupped the microphone so the person on the other end couldn't hear her speak. "It's Jennie Kim."

"Tell her we're on our way to her office."

The secretary nodded. "Actually, we're headed to your office right now... Yes... Okay." Wendy hung up the phone.

"Boss, why are we going to Ms. Kim's office?"

"You'll see."

Irene Bae tidied up her desk and got up from her seat, taking the cup of coffee with her. "Let's go."

—---------------------------------------------------------

"Can I ask you something?", the blonde hesitantly asked as she kept up with Irene's walking pace.

"Yes."

"Have you finished the manuscript I sent you?" She might already know the answer to this question because she sent it on