“I’m home.”

It had been a long first day at work, Ara couldn’t be happier to finally back at her nest. Except, an annoying bird would not leave her alone.

“Ara!” Her roommate plus best friend, Yoon Jin Yi, ran out of her room. She grabbed the purse from Ara and started fondling through it. “Did you buy it? I can’t find it!” Jin Yi demanded.

Tsk. Her friend just came back from work exhausted, but she didn’t even bother to ask anything. Such friend. Ara rolled her eyes and took out a tiny paper bag from her pocket. “You are looking for this?” She dangled it in front of Jin Yi. Sure enough, the other girl dropped Ara’s purse immediately and snatched the paper bag out of Ara’s hand. “Oh yes!” She exclaimed happily and torn the bag apart.

Ara winced as her not-so-cheap purse hit the ground. That thing was a birthday present from her parent. Her first name brand handbag. She picked it up and muttered, “Fine, don’t say thanks. No dinner for you tonight.”

That caught Jin Yi’s attention. “Ara, my baby girl, thank you sooo very much for picking this up for me! You are the best!” She didn’t want to starve tonight.

“You’re welcome. I don’t know why you are excited to see that thing, it’s just seeds.” Ara plopped down on the sofa, she was already exhausted on the way coming home, but then Jin Yi called her demanding her to pick up something for her at the market, which was in the complete opposite direction from home. She thought it was something grand and important, turned out, it was just seeds.

Jin Yi shot her a look. “It’s not just any seeds. It’s vanilla seeds. Now I can grow my own vanilla at home and make even more desserts, but looks like someone doesn’t like the idea of that…”

“No, no, no! I love it! It’s a wonderful idea! Why didn’t you tell me earlier?” Ara said quickly. She would do anything for a bite of Jin Yi’s desserts. Especially the flan, mmm the taste...it was simply entrancing.

“Alright, I’m going to plant this in the backyard, you get cooking okay?”

And that was the only good thing about Jin Yi. She could make the most delicious pastries. Not only was she demanding and whiney, she also couldn’t cook to save her life. Ara groaned and spreaded her long limbs out, she was so tired that cooking didn’t sound like the best idea right now. She just wanted to lay here and do nothing. Maybe she’d just order some Chinese take-out.

Yes, Chinese take-out for dinner today.

Maybe it was because she was extremely tired last night, she slept too well and didn’t even hear her alarm buzzing off. When she finally woke up from the dreamland, it was thirty minutes later.

“Holy !” She literally jumped out of the bed and dashed into the bathroom. Pushing Jin Yi who was just walking out in the process. “Omo...what the hell?!”

Ara used her quickest pace to do everything- washing face, brushing teeth, and getting dressed. When she ran toward the door, Jin Yi was sitting leisurely at the dining table, sipping her coffee as if there was nothing in the world could bother her. Quite a contrary to Ara who was struggling to even put on her shoes right.

“Have a nice day!” Jin Yi shouted at the same time when Ara ran out of the house, “Or not…” That girl was already going to be late on her second day to work.

“Go Ara, you must be an idiot to oversleep like that!” Ara muttered under her breath. She couldn’t believe that this would happen to her, again! When she was still in college, she overslept on an exam day. She cried and begged the professor to let her take the exam, fortunately, the professor was a woman with a kind heart, so Ara was able to pass the class. Well with a low C. But better than failing!

Ever since then oversleeping on an important day had became her worst nightmare. She vowed not to do it ever again.

Well, now she was reliving her nightmare.

“You are late.” Yoon Ji announced as if Ara didn’t know already.

She hang her head low, too scared to even look at her superior. “I’m sorry…” Today, she didn’t know why, Yoon Ji who was friendly and easygoing yesterday, now she had a dark aura around her, the atmosphere around her was incredibly tensed and dread. She clearly was not happy.

Was it just because she was late?

“Is there any excuse?”

Ara shook her head.

Yoon Ji sighed and glanced at the ashamed girl. “Well remember this, being punctual is the most important thing in this world. You can be bad at writing an article, that’s okay, because we can fix that. But being late? Unless you have a time machine to go back in time, then there is no way to right that mistake.” She jotted something down on a memo and handed it to Ara, “Don’t be late again, except someone is dying,” she forced out a faint smile on her face, “Go to the address that I wrote down. That’s your first assignment.”

Ara eyed the pink memo. Hestitantly, she asked in the smallest volume. “What...exactly do I do?”

“Interview. Ask people questions. Write their answers down…” Suddenly, she stopped typing on the keyboard and looked straight into Ara’s eyes, the younger girl appeared to be uneasy by this. “You can do this much, can’t you?” She said in an irritated tone of voice.

“Y-yes ma’am!” Ara stuttered, completley taken aback by Yoon Ji’s 365 degree personality change from yesterday. “Then...I will take my leave.” She bowed and left the office quietly.

Once she was at her cubicle, she breathed in relief. “What in the world...is she on her period?” The girl who was sitting next to her heard what she said and snickered. Ara shot her a questioning look.

“Oh sorry,” the girl said, “You just came out of Miss Lee’s office right?”

“Yeah. I’ve never seen anyone so upset about someone being late.” Ara replied. Although she admitted that being late was wrong, but was it really worth it for her to get so work up?

The girl nodded her head, like she understood her pain. “Don’t take it too hard on yourself, she normally isn’t like that at all. It’s just…” she paused, then made an effort to glance around. She leaned in closer and whispered, “I heard her boyfriend dumped her yesterday.”

Ara blinked. Taking in this piece of information. She just heard about her supervisor’s private business and it made her feel a little bit empathetic. They were all women after all.

She glanced at the memo in her hand and realized a problem. A very big problem.

How was she going to prepare for the interview if she didn’t know who was the interviewee?

She dropped her head on the desk and banged it few times. Can this day get any worst? First she was late, then she got scolded, and now she didn’t even know how to do her job. If she messed this up, they probably would fire her. And she would have to say bye bye to her paycheck and dream.

“Wow, second day and already banging your head on the desk?” A familiar low, magnetic voice rang in her ears. She looked up and sure enough, the voice’s owner was none other than Yoo Ah In. Ara didn’t notice this before, but he actually had a modelesque body and look. His skin was darker than most Koreans. It was a nice gold tan color.

Oh Go Ara, the fact that you are a damsel in distress yet you can still check a guy out is amazing.

“Hello.” Ara greeted him glumly.

“What’s the matter? You look so…” Ah In leaned against her cubicle wall and stared at her weirdly.

“What? I look like what?” She asked.

He was obviously trying hard to stifle a laugh. “Let’s just say...a hot mess.”

Ara banged her head on the desk again. Honestly, she could careless about her appearance at the moment. “Ah I’m going crazy!” She rubbed her head, messing her hair up even more.

Ah In chuckled softly. She sure was an interesting girl. He clapped his hands, a nice idea popped into his head “How about this? I will buy you coffee to cheer you up.”