Joohyun was sleepy. Not an understatement as she slept only for 3 hours in the morning.

She stood up from her stiff office chair — definitely on purpose as those Herman Miller chairs would make her oversleep without her knowing — and went to the pantry to make another one shot of espresso.

It’s her second for the day. She used to dislike bitter coffee as she had been more of a sweet tea gal.

However, the past few months of working at KimTae Studios, co-formed and led by an ex-national singer slash not-so-close friend, Kim Taeyeon, turned her life upside down including her taste buds. One shot of espresso per day was the minimum. On average, she could take three shots.

There was a time when she purposely took five for a single day. Not a week after, she was taken to the hospital as she got acid reflux. She even never got any heartburns during her intense 5-year modeling gig in the past.

Despite being sleepy in numerous days and prone to GERD, Joohyun loved the challenges working as the Vice President of Creative and co-founder.

Yes, she was aware that her working title might look extravagant especially during the start of KimTae when it was only Taeyeon and her.

However, both of them were doing everything by themselves from creating a business plan to fixing the printer. But, even to her surprise, she loved to work in her new role. Or in short: she was really into the creative business, more so than being a mere muse.

Why? She didn’t even know.

After sipping the convenience store espresso which was cheap but strong enough to wake her senses, she put the glass on her desk and walked to the toilet to freshen up.

On her way to the toilet that was located by the end of the hallway outside her office block, she could see the light was shining brightly from the next office block.

She was thankful that her office was located near a law firm. Same sleepless employees with some sleepovers in the office. So, even at 10 PM the floor was not as creepy as it could be — at least in the past two months after they moved the office here.

On the toilet, she saw someone was coming out from the cubicle. Someone she knew quite well. It was her co-worker.

“Ah Joohyun unnie... I feel tired. And sleepy. And nervous,” the latter put her head on Joohyun’s shoulders without any hesitation.

“I feel you, Sooyoung. I feel you. Do you want to take a short nap? You didn’t sleep much today I guess, huh?”

They were both still preparing for the next morning's Oriente watch advertisement shooting session.

“As much as I wanted to, I couldn’t just leave Yerim and Seulgi without any supervision... Yerim set the wrong schedule for the car rental service and Seulgi... well, she’s doing okay but I just couldn’t give my full trust for now.”

Joohyun understood how Sooyoung, as the Creative Director slash Producer slash whatever needed, got stressed by the her ownsomehow micromanagement style of work. As it was the first big break for the company, everyone was stressed out. Including her. Like hell, even she was in the bathroom around 10 PM to refresh before overseeing the final shooting preparation with no sign of returning back home early—or rather not at all.

“Loosen up a bit, Sooyoung. Try to trust them.”

“I wanted to.. But it’s not as easy as I thought.”

“For sure. Managing a team could be an additional unneeded headache. But I’m sure despite some little unintentional mistakes... they’re overall doing okay, right?”

Sooyoung nodded. And Joohyun knew how much Yerim and Seulgi had hustled to support every operation in the company.

“Also… I think,” Sooyoung paused and looked around to make sure that no one besides her and Joohyun were in the toilet. “We really need someone to support them. Their plates are really full especially with the new projects coming in. I mean, one or two simple mistakes are okay for now. But we cannot definitely afford to have incoming major ones just because we’re short of human resources. Don’t get me wrong, I think both Yerim and Seulgi are our precious assets. But you know what I mean right?”

Joohyun let out a sigh, “I copy what you mean very well. We definitely need another manpower. But we could probably only afford interns for now. You know, despite having incoming projects, it’s still unstable for our situation to have a new full-time worker.”

After all, being the Vice-President of Creative in the agency meant that she oversaw the company’s financial situation as well. As KimTae Studios was especially an emerging company, she and the entire team for sure, need to be vigilant with any incurred costs related to the finances.

“Interns would do more than enough if we got the right person,” said Sooyoung.

“Indeed, I agree. But let’s focus first with our Oriente project and we’ll discuss that afterwards.”

Sooyoung hugged Joohyun lightly, “You’re the best!”

“Yeah yeah…” Joohyun smiled and hugged her best friend slash co-worker back. “Anyway, did Seulgi print and copy all the scripts and shot lists and give it to me and Taeyeon unnie?”

“She hasn’t?! Why is everyone so forgetful at desperate times like this? Okay I’ll let her know after I wash my face.”

“That’s exactly the reason why you’re here, Park Sooyoung.” Joohyun laughed. 

Sooyoung then left to go back to the office and Joohyun opened the water tap. As she washed her hands, she felt her stomach suddenly growling.

It might be caused by the accumulation of her heavy dose of espresso in the past few days and thus needed to be released.

But... WHY NOW?

She instantly went to the cubicle and prayed that no one would go inside the toilet when she was having her me-time. At the very least, she was glad that it was a smooth one. Not much effort was needed to unleash the semisolid waste. Might be an unusual timing, but she was proud of having a gentle and muted process.

After around five minutes, she felt that it was all done. She needed to clean-up. Before her hand reached to get the tissue, her eyes showed a trace of horror. All that she could find was the roll. She couldn’t find any single sheet of tissue.

, she thought to herself — ironically.

Joohyun pushed the flush button and looked for solutions. She decided to chat and call Sooyoung. Unfortunately, the latter didn’t respond. But, she remembered that Sooyoung probably took a short nap so that was probably why she wasn’t using her phone.

She decided then to reach Seulgi and Yerim, but once again to no avail. She got a bit panicked and understood why Sooyoung could get so worked up with the two ladies.

Sooyoung, Seulgi, Yerim...  and the other one who was probably still in the office was the boss. She opened the messenger application and typed Taeyeon’s name. She initially had doubts to reach Taeyeon as the latter was practically her boss, but she couldn’t take it anymore.

Just as her index finger aimed to touch the call button, the toilet door creaked and foot steps were going inside.

Joohyun didn’t think twice and asked, “Hello... Anybody there? Could someone help me?”

“Oh yeah, sure. How could I help you? Are you in the third cubicle?” 

Joohyun couldn’t recognize the voice — must be one of the lawyers or the poor overworked interns next door. She wanted to save her own face but she decided to care more for her sanitation.

“I’m sorry, this is embarrassing. But could you kindly pass me the tissue roll? I’m having bad luck here.”

“Ah...” The owner of the voice looked for the tissue roll on the other cubicle and got it. “Do you want me to throw or pass it below the door?”

“Pass it below, please.”

The angel — at least at that moment to Joohyun — gave the tissue. The sight of the tissue roll was like an enlightenment for the overworked vice president. It seemed like every problem vanished — at least temporarily.

“Thank you so much!”

“No worries!”

Joohyun then cleaned herself, rechecked everything, and flushed the water closet to make sure that no trace of dirt was left after her.

After she opened the door, she saw someone around her height and age with short hair, sleek set of blazer and trousers, reapplying lipstick in front of the mirror — kind of unusual since it was already late. She then washed her hands beside the probably-the-lawyer-next-door woman.

“All good?” the short-haired woman asked her. Joohyun felt quite shy and looked toward the neighbor or more like the gentle-faced lady who helped with her emergency situation.

“It was you? Thank you so much. Really. I know it was embarrassing.”

“Not at all. Glad to help,” said the woman next door. Turns out she was applying chapstick. “You’re working at KimTae?”

Joohyun was surprised, “I am yeah. How could you know?”

“Of course. There were only two offices on our floor. Mine and yours. And no guests would come around this hour, no?” The nice lady smiled and turned to look Joohyun in the eyes. The latter was taken aback with such glance and tried not to smile back—and she thought to herself on why she needed to tone the smile down. She then replied casually.

“You’re working at the law firm, then?”

“I am. And I’m glad that my office really has a neighbor. So it was not only us working.”

“Yeah. Despite being neighbors I’ve never met someone from... sorry I forgot the law firm name. Is it Son…?”

“SON LAW. Correct.”

“Ah yes, SON LAW.” Joohyun went to the hand dryer and dried her hands.

“Gotta go back. Nice to meet you, neighbor.”

“Nice to meet you too,” said Joohyun, smiling. At least our floor was not fully empty.