August 12, 2013

Ilana woke Monday morning in her new apartment. Gazing out her floor to ceiling window before stepping out of bed, she still couldn't believe that she would be living and working in New York City.  Not very happy about being in a twenty story building (Kike conveniently omitted that fact) but she would have to make this her home now. At least she had a patio to step out on when she needed fresh air. She was eager, and just slightly nervous to start the day; her first day as a new employee.

It would be another eighty-degree day in New York which was fine by her. Sipping on the dress Nana had selected for her, black and white like most of her work attire, she complemented it with an open burgundy jacket and some simple earrings. Her hair carefully arranged in a low side ponytail, she dusted her face with powder and added a little lip gloss (the most makeup she usually wore) before being satisfied with her reflection in the mirror.

Ilana followed the smell of her favorite breakfast, pancakes, to the kitchen. She was going to enjoy being spoiled by Nana for the rest of the month. That is how long Brendon, Kike, and Nana were staying; just long enough to see her settled in.
- "Buenos días (good morning), Nana." Ilana kissed Nana on the cheek.
- "Siéntate, niña, ya no tardan tu hermano y Brendon (sit, child, your brother and Brendon should be here soon)."

Brendon, familiar with the city, was driving Kike from the hotel. He had gone to school in New York. Kike's manager had leased them a car in order for Brendon & Nana to get around town.
Ilana was sipping her coffee when the pair arrived. Brendon had slept at the hotel with Kike, despite Ilana's protests that there was plenty of room in the apartment. Kike reasoned with her that the hotel room was leased for the month and he might as well get some use out of it.
- "Buenos días, Kike…Brendon."
- "Buenos días, Manita." Kike bent down to kiss Ilana on the cheek. Nana was already pouring them coffee while they served themselves pancakes and sausage.
- "Are you nervous?" Kike asked.
- "Mmm…just a little."
- "You'll do just fine. You always do, when you put your mind to it," Brendon encouraged. "I'm upset Enrique got you an apartment so close to work, now I can't drive you." Brendon loved his job as the household and also company driver. He would never trade it for an office job.
 - "I was not about to leave her to wander around the city by herself."  Kike would be walking with her to work.

 - “Guys!  I'm not a child; eventually, I'll need to use public transportation and walk myself to work.”

 - "You'll take a cab unless you have someone with you."
 - "Ya, déjenla (Leave her alone, now). No la hagan enojar el primer día de su trabajo (Don't upset her on her first day at work)." Nana scolded the two guys.
- "Si (yes), Nana," they both responded and Ilana stuck her tongue out at them.
- "Señorita (Young lady)," Nana had seen her sticking her tongue out. "Tampoco te enojes con los muchachos que solo quieren que nada te pase (Also, don’t get mad at the boys, they just don’t want anything to happen to you).
- "Si, Nana," Ilana blushed at the chastisement and the other two smirked.

It was odd, but nice having everyone together, it had been eight months since she'd left the comfort of home. Aside from her cousin, she had a better appreciation for her little family since those first few weeks on the ship when she felt truly lost and alone.
- "It's eight thirty, should we get going?" Kike asked her when they were all done eating.
- "Mmm, Let me get my purse. I can walk myself to work you know. It'll take me all of ten minutes to get there.
- "When have I ever been able to take my little sister to work? I want to do this for me, not you." He put a hand on her shoulder. "So stop complaining and let's go.
- "Arraso," Ilana mumbled under her breath as she grabbed her purse and slipped on her shoes.
- "I heard that," Kike said.
- "Ven para darte la bendición (come, let me give you a blessing)," Ilana turned dutifully to Nana. Nana placed a hand on her head. "Que Dios te guarde y te proteja (May God keep you and protect you)." Ilana knew God didn't care about her, but this made Nana happy, so she stayed still while Nana said a quick prayer over her.

Kike and Ilana arrived at the hospital door in ten minutes.
- "Que tengas buen día, te recojo en la tarde (have a nice day, I’ll pick you up in the afternoon)." Kike kissed her on the cheek and left Ilana to enter the building on her own.

Ilana pushed the elevator button while dialing Sung Ryun to let her know she was in the building. The elevator doors opened and she walked in alongside another gentleman. They both reached for the '6' button. She gave way to the gentleman who had already pushed the button and nodded to him just as her boss picked up her phone.
- "SungRyung, this is Ilana; I just stepped in the elevator."
- "Wonderful, I was expecting your call, I'm leaving my office as I speak." Ilana terminated the call.
- "I couldn't help but overhear, were you speaking to SungRyung?"
- "Yes," Ilana answered cautiously, not wanting to engage in any unnecessary conversation with strange men.
- "I see you're going to the sixth floor as well," the man bowed to Ilana, catching her by surprise. "I'm Yoon ShiYoon, it's my first day, please be nice to me." He was all smiles and eagerness and reminded Ilana of HyungJun. She resisted the urge to laugh and kept a straight face. "SungRyung is my new boss."
- "Oh," Ilana said non-committedly.
- "Hey, is it your first day too? We must be co-workers." The elevator was taking its sweet time getting to their floor. Ilana was stuck with this chatterbox. Was there no one else taking this elevator? "Isn't this place cool? I'm really excited about working here." ShiYoon continued. “Eventually I'd like to be in the IT department, but there aren’t any openings right now. SungRyung said there wouldn't be any problems transferring when the time comes. She's really cool to let me work with her anyway. So, do you have a name or should I call you Ajumma which is like ma’am or señora if you speak Spanish."
- "It's Ilana," she blurted out hoping to keep him quiet for just one minute.
- "Ajumma Ilana, I like that. It's very pretty, what nationality are you?" Thankfully they had arrived at their floor and she didn't have to answer. She quickly pulled her gloves off and stuffed them into her purse before stepping out of the elevator into freedom.
- "Shi Yoon, Ilana, welcome, I see you've met." SungRyung greeted them. Ilana just smiled at her boss.
- "Oh, we had a great conversation in the elevator didn't we?" Ilana didn't answer. "Although, between you and me boss, I think she's a little shy."
- "That's quite alright, give her time." She smiled kindly to Ilana in reassurance that it was perfectly acceptable not to be talkative. "Come, I'll introduce you to the others."
- "Ilana, Shi Yoon, this is Abi-ya, as we like to call her, she is your lead and will be training you, Ilana."
- "Abigaíl Garcia…nice to meet you." She spoke her name as it should, in Spanish. Ilana immediately liked her; she smiled and answered her back in kind.
- "Ilana Contreras, it's nice to meet you too."
- "Mucho gusto conocerla, señorita Abigail (Very pleased to meet you, Miss Abigail)." Shi Yoon spoke excellent Spanish leaving Abigail and Ilana impressed.
- "Where are you from?" Abigail asked.
- "So you speak Spanish too, Ajumma?” He spoke to Ilana and then turned to address everyone “I actually grew up in Spain."
- "But you're Korean?" Another co-worker asked.
- "Ilana, Shi- Yoon, this is YooJin, she will be training you, Shi-Yoon." SungRyung introduced them. She had to smile at Shi-Yoon calling Ilana, Ajumma. She did come across older than she should be, at first anyway. She was confident the girls and Shi-Yoon would be able to break through that barricade in no time.
- "Anneyeong haseyo," YuJin bowed to them. "Everyone calls me Uee."
- "Uee is working for us while pursuing an acting career. She will be famous one day and we can all say we knew her when." SungRyung gave a bit if background information on YuJin.
- "I lived in Korea for a few years, but then my fiancé and I decided to come to New York. She's an editor," Shi-Yoon answered YuJin's question.
- "This is Shan Cai, she's our travel expert. She worked for a travel agency prior to coming here." SungRyung had moved on to the next employee.
- "Nice to meet you, I hope you like it here."
- "Nice to meet you, too,” Shi-Yoon bowed to the girl.
- "Girls take good care of your new team members." SungRyung said. "Shan Cai, I'll be helping you while everyone is in training."
- "Thanks, boss."
- "Ladies, Shi-Yoon, lunch is on me today. The doctors can wait an hour, while we have some lunch. Abi-ya, if I'm still in my office and it's past noon, come find me."
- "I will," Abigaíl turned to Ilana and Shi-Yoon. "She gets so busy; sometimes we don't see her all day. Either she hasn't come out of her office or she's had to take care of things on other floors."
- "Shi-Yoon, the cubicle next to mine is yours, so come with me and we'll get started." Uee gestured.
- "Ilana, you're next to me." Ilana put her purse away in a drawer and grabbed a pen and notepad that was on her desk.
- "Bring your chair over here," Ilana scooted her chair next to Abigaíl. Ilana looked at all the pictures in her co-workers cubicle. They were mostly of her and a beautiful little girl. The child had the biggest brown eyes and the sweetest smile. Abigaíl noticed the direction of Ilana's gaze.
- "That's my daughter, Isabel."
- "That's my Mom's name,” Ilana said softly and without thinking.
- "Really?" Abigaíl smiled. "Do you live with your parents?"
- "N-no."
- "It sounds like you miss them, do they live far? Do you not get to see them that often?"
- "Yes, they live very far." Ilana didn't mean to lie, it just happened. Before she knew it, she had led Abigaíl to believe her parents were alive and well, just living apart from her.
- "Your daughter is beautiful," Ilana changed the subject. "You're fortunate." Ilana smiled.
- "Thank You, I thank God for her every day. I feel like she was always supposed to be, even if things didn't work out between her dad and me." Abigaíl didn't know why she was confiding all these things to Ilana, but she had immediately felt a connection with the new employee. "Well, we better get started, or you'll never get to be on your own. Are you familiar with the system?" Abigaíl logged on to the hospital system.
- "Yes, I am." Ilana took up pen and paper, ready to take notes.
- "Good, so basically we're the first hospital to change the way things are done. Instead of having three different people working on one patient’s file, it's now one. We will create the patient’s ID when they first come in and code the file for the Doctor. We will also work with the Doctor's office to coordinate schedules. It’s our responsibility to know what our doctor's schedule is at all times. We schedule any follow-up appointments as well. There will be times we might need to contact a patient’s family as well." Ilana listened attentively to all Abigaíl had to say. It sounded like a lot of work and contact with many different people; she hoped she'd be able to handle it.

Ilana shadowed Abigaíl for the rest of the morning, occasionally traveling to other floors in order to deliver ID's. The morning passed quickly and it was time for lunch. Ilana hadn't realized she was hungry until her stomach let out a loud rumble making Abigaíl laugh and Ilana blush.
- "We better go find our boss, I'm getting hungry too."

"Since two of our Doctors aren't in today, let's use that as an excuse to take a long lunch and welcome our two newbies," SungRyung said. She had called a van cab to pick them up and take them to an Italian café. "Shi-Yoon, Ilana, how are you feeling about the job so far, do you have any questions?" She had asked once they were seated.
- "No problem here, Uee’s doing a great job at explaining things. I'm sure I'll catch on to the system pretty quick. I create video games, I'm sure I can learn database software."
- "Wonderful! What about you, Ilana?"
- "I'm fine, SungRyung, thank you. I'm familiar with the system and the rest is just a matter of getting used to the workflow."
- "If you find my name difficult, the girls call me ‘boss’ or ‘Unnie’. Shi-Yoon you may call me ‘Noona’. Remember, we are all family here; although, Ilana doesn't have the usual trouble with my name. You must have spent some time practicing it." She put Ilana on the spot, not out of cruelty, but she wanted to bring her out of her shell.
- "Not too much…” Ilana blushed at her boss' teasing. "…but I do have an ear for languages." The familiarity, with which this group treated each other, was a little too much too soon for Ilana's comfort, her hands trembled slightly, under the table.

- "Do you speak another language, besides Spanish?" Abigaíl asked.
- "I can speak Italian fairly well and French and I can fake my way through Portuguese." Ilana was occupying herself with her straw so she didn't have to look at anyone. She wasn't about to admit to learning Korean. Not with three Korean natives sitting at the table. Several surprised exclamations went around the table.
- "You're not from New York, are you?" Shi-Yoon asked. "Where are you from…somewhere exotic?"
- "California;" easy enough, she thought.
- "What about your parents?" Abigaíl, who was curious, asked.

Ilana hesitated before answering.  “My…dad is Mexican and my Mom is Spanish," she took a sip of her drink so no one could see she was fighting back tears.
- "We're almost family!" Shi-Yoon shouted out excitedly.
- "Alright kids," SungRyung noticed Ilana was uncomfortable. "Ilana has answered enough of your questions. Let her off the hook for now." Ilana sighed in relief. "Let's change the subject back to work."
- "Will there be any more changes once we are all trained?" Shan Cai asked.
- "Yes, one or two of you will be moving floors and you will each have a doctor assigned to you."
- "So we'll be dealing exclusively with our assigned doctors?" It was Uee's turn to ask.
- "Yes, unless you're being back up for someone else, schedules might change depending on your assigned Doctor. Any more questions?" Everyone shook their head no. "Newbies…?" Neither Ilana nor Shi Yoon had questions. "Take your time to finish your food and then we'll leave."
- "Que chismosas somos, no (we’re a nosy bunch, aren’t we)?" Abigaíl whispered to Ilana, who was sitting next to her.
- "That's ok,” Ilana whispered back. "My friends are pretty nosy too." Of course, the guys were a little more subtle in getting information out of her.

After their two-hour lunch, they headed back to the hospital and the afternoon went quickly.  The end of the day had arrived and Ilana felt like they’d just returned from lunch.

- "Why don't we go see what boss has planned for tomorrow?" Abigaíl told Ilana. "Uee, before Shi-Yoon leaves let's see what boss has for them tomorrow."
- "Good idea."
- "Unnie,” Uee greeted once the four were all in SungRyung's office.
- "It's five already?" SungRyung looked at the time. "How did training go?"
- "Chuahyo,” Uee said.
- "Great," Abigaíl said. "I think Ilana can sit on her own tomorrow and handle a few tasks."
- "Shi-Yoon is ready as well."
- "Ilana, Shi-Yoon, are you confident enough to try working a few tasks on your own?"
- "Yes,” Ilana answered.
- "Deh," Shi-Yoon answered.
- "Great, Ilana, Shi-Yoon, I'll see you two at eight, starting tomorrow. Abi-ya, Uee, don't abandon your trainees just because they are fast learners. You can go home now." SungRyung dismissed everyone from her office.
- "Ilana, are you living close by?" Uee asked.
- "Mmm, the Coleman building…I think it's called?"
- "Oh," Uee was disappointed and a little surprised; the building was where many of the Doctor’s lived.  “Shan Cai and I live in Washington Heights or else we could go together. I'll just wait for her to be off."
- "That's very kind of you to think of me, but my brother is actually probably already waiting for me downstairs."
- "If he's cute, I'll walk with you anyway." Uee joked. Ilana just smiled.
- "I've got a train to catch;" Abigaíl lived in New Jersey.  "If you're leaving now, Ilana, I'll walk out with you."
- "Okay, see you guys tomorrow." Ilana waved at everyone.
- "Let's take the stairs, it's faster," Abigaíl said. "I hope you like it here?"
- "I think I will; thank you."
- "Ok, chica, I'll see you tomorrow." They were downstairs in just over one minute.
- "I see my brother, I'll see you tomorrow," the two girls waved at each other.
- "Kike!" Ilana called to her brother.
- "Hola, Manita!" He kissed her cheek in greeting. "Vámonos, Nana ya está preparando la cena (Let’s go, Nana is already making dinner). Como fue tu primer día (How was your first day)?"
- "Bien, todos mis compañeros son muy amables (Good, all my co-workers are very nice)."

Nana had made an extra special dinner that night for them in honor of Ilana's first day of work. They had garlicky chicken and Cesar salad and ate off plates that Nana had brought from Ilana's home. Ilana recapped her day for them; of course, they wanted to hear every detail of how her day had been. She told them about her elevator ride with Shi-Yoon, training with Abigaíl, about Uee, Shan cai, and the lunch meeting with their boss.
Ilana helped Nana clean the kitchen, while Kike and Brendon watched football (soccer) on TV. Once the kitchen was clean, Ilana excused herself to get ready for the next day.
- "I'm going to wash up and get my things ready for tomorrow."
- "I'll wait till you're done, before Brendon and I head back to the hotel," Kike said.

Ilana showered and got her things ready for the next day. When she was done, she came out of her room to say goodnight.
- "Buenas noches," Ilana said goodnight to everyone. "Estoy cansada y quiero leer un rato (I’m tired and I want to read for a little bit). Mañana empiezo a las ocho (Tomorrow I start at eight.)."
- "Estaremos aquí a las seis y media (We’ll be here at six thirty), te parece bien (does that sound ok)?"
- "You don't have to walk me if you don't want to."
- "And miss Nana's breakfast? No way," he hugged his sister, goodnight. "Don't forget to tweet your friends, they're all probably anxious to know how your day went."
- "Arraso." She smiled and .

Back in her room, she slid under the blankets and sent a tweet.  "Anneyeong chingu, first day went well. Everyone is very nice. One of my new co-workers could pass for HyungJun Oppa's brother. He practically talked my ear off and he called me Ajumma!" :’( More details later. I'm too tired right now. Saranghae, jal-ja.”  Setting music on a timer, she stared out the window and tried to relax enough to sleep. Reviewing her day in her head, she decided all her co-workers were very nice and especially welcoming. Abigaíl was extremely friendly and chatty, making her feel at ease almost immediately. Ilana smiled, thinking Abigaíl was a lot like Suzy. Suddenly remembering the picture of Abigaíl's daughter Isabel, for some reason,this brought tears to her eyes. A future with a child of her own, she couldn’t even think of; much less a future husband. She thought of YoungSaeng and sighed. He liked her a lot and she liked him; he was her special Oppa.  He was the one she went to when she needed to cry and have someone hold her. It was horribly selfish of her she knew but that's as far their relationship could ever go. Even if she allowed herself the luxury of letting herself fall in love with him, she could never be a true wife. The mere thought of giving her body intimately to him, or anyone, made her sick.  "You already knew this and accepted your fate, why are you getting all worked up about it now, pabo?" She told herself, while weeping silently. She had accepted her fate, but it still hurt sometimes. That sweet child's picture caused the scab in her heart to be opened and allowed to bleed a little. Hoping they would cleanse the wound in her heart, she let the tears fall unrestrained for a moment.  Tomorrow would be another day and maybe she would call one of her friends just to hear their voice. That thought soothed her frazzled mind and she finally slept.

This chapter took me a while to get started; I'm hoping the next one doesn't give me as much trouble. Also, I have to confess I started watching Maknae's drama "Melody of Love" and so I all my extra time went into catching up. That and leader's new drama and of course, reading everyone else's stories. :) Anyway, I really hope you enjoy. Ilana's got a colorful bunch of co-workers, I added one more OC as well. Let's see what Doctor Ilana gets assigned too. Ke Ke Ke. :)