It was as if I was awake and not at the same time and all I could feel was the lightest of touches on my cheek and on my hand. At the feeling of a kiss on my forehead, I smiled thinking I was still dreaming.

“Wheein-ah… Wake up”

A voice akin to Miss Kim called me.

I shook my head and snuggled closer on the hand that was holding my cheek.

“Wheein-ah…”

The voice called a little louder.

Slowly, I’m starting to feel that this was real but still doubt it. I’m trying to think about what the date today is and what I am supposed to do. Am I going to the shelter? Is it a workday today?

The hand on my cheek went to brush my hair away from my face.

“Hey… Wheein-ah, wake up. We already arrived at the office”

Realizing that it really was Miss Kim, I instantly sat up with my eyes wide in alert as I scanned my surroundings. I’m inside Miss Kim’s car. She was silently giggling while watching me make sense of everything.

And today is indeed a workday.

I closed my eyes and groaned while dropping my body back in a lying position. “I’m still sleepy, unnie…”

“I know but we still have to work” she reasoned and I just whined, making her chuckle.

She was already busy unbuckling our seatbelts and pressing buttons here and there. It’s making me dizzy. She climbed out of the car while I sluggishly sat up, looking for the buttons to adjust my seat. Miss Kim did it for me after opening the door and I was still struggling.

“There… Now, hand me your bag.” She didn’t wait at all and just snatched my bag from my lap. When I was out of her car, she closed the door for me and her hand found its way to mine. “Did you finally run out of coffee this time?”

I groaned while nodding. I dragged my feet, often swaying because I’m not fully awake yet.

She laughed at me, stopping to have her fingerprint scanned to open the door. “There’s coffee in the cafeteria. Do you want me to get that one?”

I let her drag me while shaking my head. “Byulyi-unnie and I have a coffee machine at home. I like to make my own”

“You can make your own?” she asked, letting me talk while opening the door to the office.

“Unnie, you might’ve forgotten that I work as a barista before”

She glanced at me to raise an eyebrow. “And you think you make better coffee than the ones we have in the cafeteria?” she asked, challenging.

I playfully rolled my eyes as I haughtily huffed out a breath, earning a giggle from her. I pointed at myself while narrowing my gaze at her. “Unnie… Me?” I asked, feigning disbelief as I rolled my eyes again.

Miss Kim was just heartily laughing beside me, constantly squeezing my hand.

“Unnie…” I reprimanded.

“Wheenie…” she countered.

“Didn’t you read my profile during the interview? I worked as a barista before”

She grinned sheepishly. “I actually forgot about that”

I pouted at her, feigning disappointment this time. “I was one of Mrs. Choi’s best baristas of all time!”

She started walking us inside the office, heading for my table, while I continued to pout at her. “Yeah? She said that?”

“Yes!”

“And now, you’re bragging”

I shook my head, sighing heavily. “No… It’s not bragging. It’s just confidence in my skill”

She placed my bag down, freeing her hand to pinch my cheek. To tease me more, she pushed my bucket hat down, covering my sight. “It’s exactly bragging, Wheein-ah”

“No, it’s not”

I pulled my hat back up and the first thing I saw was Seulgi-unnie looking towards my direction. Then I remembered one of her paintings exhibited yesterday, which Miss Kim and I visited after we had lunch.

“Seulgi-unnie!” I dropped Miss Kim’s hand and ran to unnie, throwing myself at her in a bear-like hug. “Congratulations! We saw your painting yesterday! It was really amazing. Wait, I took a picture of it. Let me show you”

I grabbed my phone from my pocket and scrolled through my gallery.

“You did? How come I didn’t see you there?”

After finding the photo, I showed it to her. It was a picture that Miss Kim took while I was standing right beside Seulgi-unnie’s painting. “Look! I was there”

“Why didn’t I see you? What time were you there?”

I pouted while recalling but ended up turning to Miss Kim for help. “What time were we there, Yongsun-unnie?”

“Around four…” Miss Kim approached us and held a hand to Seulgi-unnie. “Congratulations. It was a really great painting, Seulgi”

Seulgi-unnie was confused at first, taken aback by Miss Kim’s candidness. She broke out of her stupor and accepted Miss Kim’s hand with a proud smile. “Thank you, Miss Kim”

“Did you already go home at that time, unnie?”

“No. I went to get some snacks. Mino-oppa and Naeun dropped by too. They were waiting for you”

I crossed my arms in front of me and shot Miss Kim with a playful glare. “I wonder whose fault is that…”

Her eyebrows went up in question while one side of her lips curved up in a smirk. “What happened to being sleepy a while ago?”

I pointed an accusing finger at Miss Kim as I explained to Seulgi-unnie. “She got her characters wrong, unnie! Yongsun-unnie typed the wrong address. We were two hours away from the actual venue”

“I already said I’m sorry.” Miss Kim chuckled under her breath.

I tsked while shaking my head at her. “You and your adorable clumsiness will get us nowhere, unnie”

She pinched my cheek in return. “That’s why I got you”

“I’m glad you two are back now.” Miss Ahn, who just entered the office, threw a smirk towards me and a wink at Miss Kim. “Have you two talked it out already?”

I let Miss Kim answer Miss Ahn because I suddenly got shy. I’m so used to holding Miss Kim’s hand, walking beside her, talking to her casually, and standing this close to her that it all feels natural to me.

I didn’t even realize that everyone was watching us until now.

Back when we were dating, we were not this close. Only when it’s just the two of us. We’ve appeared very casual in front of everyone but not this close.

“Yeah… Sort of”

I glanced at Miss Kim and was relieved to know that I wasn’t the only one who’s shy.

“Sort of?” Miss Ahn questioned.

“The Baes are coming today, right?” Miss Kim asked, suddenly changing the subject. “Ireh, Dosie, Chaein, are the progress reports ready?”

After teasing her that she almost got everyone pee on their pants, she really took my suggestion on dropping the formalities so they wouldn’t get scared of her.

“Yes, Miss Kim”

Miss Ahn walked around us to get to her office, whispering under her breath, “Look at you changing the subject, Yongyong. You still owe me a story.” She gave a smirk and a wink towards me. “Good morning, Wheein”

She also has a knack for changing subjects.

I gave her a small bow, feeling my cheeks blush some more. “Good morning, Miss Ahn”

“I’ll see you later in the meeting, okay?”

“Yes, mam”

Miss Kim held my hand, squeezing it to take my attention. “Lunch later?”

“Okay…”

With a nod, she left to go to her office.

I am already anticipating questions from my colleagues but I still have to prepare for later’s meeting. Right as the doors in our bosses’ office closed, I raised my hand, giving Joy and Yeri’s mirrored looks of their mouths open to voice their questions a pointed look.

“I know… And I will answer them later after the meeting. And you…” I pointed at Joy with an accusing look accompanied by a pout that slipped into a smirk. “You and Wendy-unnie have a story to tell”

She played it cool by shrugging. “I don’t know what you’re talking about”

Miss Kim and I caught her and Wendy-unnie on a date by accident. I even took a picture of them as evidence before Miss Kim drove us to Seulgi-unnie’s exhibit.

“Yongsun-unnie’s mistake on her car’s GPS brought us to a different museum. And right across that museum is a seafood restaurant.” I giggled when I saw Joy’s eyes widening in shock. “Shall I continue or do you want to share instead?”

“I knew it!” Yeri exclaimed, also pointing at Joy now.

Joy frowned at me before she finally gave up. “Fine but I’ll let Wendy-unnie do the talking”

And right on cue, Wendy-unnie marched into the office with papers in hand. She stopped, startled, watching everyone in a curious and confused gaze. “What? Me? What did I do?”

“Congratulations, unnie. You’re not a coward anymore” Ireh teased.

Wendy-unnie still looked confused, which made me giggle.

I patted her arm and congratulated her too on my way back to my table.

I had no idea about her and Joy at all. Only when Miss Kim and I saw her and Joy together yesterday. Miss Kim mentioned that she noticed the two dancing around each other before. She also said that she even reminded Wendy-unnie that it’s okay to date someone in the office to give her a little push but Wendy-unnie still didn’t do anything at all.

“Oh… You gossip too, unnie!” I lightheartedly accused Miss Kim at that time.

The car was filled with our giggles before Miss Kim focused on driving so fast so I can still watch Seulgi-unnie’s exhibit. We didn’t see Seulgi-unnie but I definitely appreciate her effort.

Besides, she’s too adorable when she’s clumsy.

Miss Bae arrived accompanied by her own secretary and her assistant. The meeting was supposed to be scheduled at their company but she somehow prefers having it here. Ireh, Dosie, Chaein, and I were already waiting in the conference room while Miss Kim and Miss Ahn went to greet Miss Bae and her company.

The four of us also welcomed them upon their entrance in the conference room. Miss Bae gave the three programmers a nod before she went straight to me with her arm extended.

“Nice to see you again, Wheein”

I immediately shook her hand, surprised to have gathered her attention. “Nice to see you too, Miss Bae”

“How was your weekend?”

Eh…?

Everyone around us was getting ready for the meeting. I was supposed to get ready too but I was still stuck with Miss Bae. I don’t even know why she wanted to know about my weekend.

“I celebrated my birthday last weekend in the animal shelter I volunteer at, mam”

Her eyes widened as she asked, “It was your birthday last weekend?”

I nervously chuckled as I shyly nodded.

“You could’ve told me.” She sounded really disappointed that I suddenly felt bad. “And you volunteer at an animal shelter? How kind and noble of you, Wheein?” She touched my arm and gave it a light squeeze as she smiled at me.

“I ah…” I scratched my cheek out of nervousness while gathering my thoughts to respond to her. “Thank you, Miss Bae. I didn’t know you wanted to know about my birthday”

“Of course, I do. Where’s this shelter? Maybe I can drop by and visit you there”

Someone cleared their throat that I only realized was Miss Kim when she spoke. “I think we should start the meeting.  We didn’t want to waste your time, Miss Bae. We know how busy you are—”

“Oh, it’s fine, Miss Kim. We can take our time. Right, Wheein?” She gave my arm a squeeze again. Her eyes were so intimidating even when she’s smiling that I could only nod.

I realized it was the wrong thing to do when I met Miss Kim’s gaze.

Her jaw was tense and her hands were tightly locked against each other on the table in front of her. Her eyes threw daggers at Miss Bae before it traveled to me, making me gulp hard. They slowly went down to my arm, to where Miss Bae’s hand was still holding my arm.

I immediately took a step back away from Miss Bae and from her touch. I gave her a deep bow. These all surprised Miss Bae.

“We don’t want to take too much of your time, mam. Miss Kim is right. We should start the meeting. I apologize” I quickly rambled, giving her another bow before taking my seat beside a fuming Miss Kim.

She’s scary.

Thankfully, Miss Bae didn’t take my abrupt dismissal as rude. She just laughed it off as she took her seat beside Miss Ahn.

“Cute…” she whispered under her breath.

The meeting began immediately after everyone settled down. Although I could still feel the storm brewing right beside me. Miss Kim refused to look at me or at Miss Bae. She focused her attention on the programmers.

Is she mad at me? Did I do something that made her this mad? What did I do?

Instead of entertaining these worries, I followed Miss Kim and focused on work too.

“We’re about seventy-five percent done with all the installments. The basic components of the security system are already running. We’re now down to the advanced components and then synching systems from all branches into the main control room” Dosie explained.

“With this progress, we’re moving right on track as what was originally agreed” Ireh added.

“As for the training,” Chaein continued, “we’ve started last week and shall resume tomorrow. Training and installments are also in sync. We positively foresee that the people you hired, Miss Bae, will finish their training right on time for the installments to finish”

Miss Kim, for the first time, faced Miss Bae. She wasn’t as welcoming as before. She wasn’t passive either. She clearly was still subtly throwing daggers at Miss Bae.

“You’ve requested additional components on the system. We can work on that but that’s outside the scope of our agreement. It will be another work, contract, and a separate deal. If you wish not to pursue, we’ll continue with what we originally planned. Otherwise, it will be another agreement.

“I also suggest for you to make up your mind as soon as possible so we can incorporate them while the installment is still ongoing. It will be more costly if added after the installment is completed”

They proceeded to a wave of discussions on Miss Bae’s last minute additions. There were suggestions and opinions thrown back and forth that it was a little hard to catch up. By the time we were done, Miss Kim didn’t look as mad now than she was before the meeting started.

“Thank you so much, Miss Bae. We’ll call again for another meeting to give you an update. With the addition, we might have to extend for a week to completely finish all the installments” Miss Ahn said, which is already a sign that the meeting is about to end.

It will be a huge sigh of relief once we’re done.

“My programmers have experience in designing what you have requested. It’s just a matter of synching it into the main system” Miss Kim assured.

She really doesn’t sound as mad as she was a