four: the centennial

“Meet Park Jimin, he will be your new co-worker in the company.”

Eunji’s palms grew sweaty, and she pinched herself just to make sure that she wasn’t dreaming again. But no, it was real. He was real.

Jimin completely abandoned his man candy appearance. He was wearing his glasses again, wearing the same baggy office pants with a somewhat tight polo. His hair was dyed brown, completely neglecting his red hair.

She cleared , snapping out of her thoughts, “I—uh, I read your article this morning, actually.”

“R-Really?” He stuttered, receiving a nod from her.

“It’s a pretty intriguing subject,” she pursed her lips into a line, “there are some errors with your sentence structure, but we can fix that.”

“Judging his work, already?” Sungjae chirped in, catching her attention. “Well, that’s good for a start, coming from one of the finest in the company.”

“Finest indeed,” Jimin smiled, “would you mind helping me with my work?”

Eunji gulped nervously, trying to figure out what was coming before her. There was tremendous hesitation in her thoughts when it came to interacting with Jimin. It’s been almost half a year without him, and she was just getting used to the emptiness. She didn’t want to let him into her life again, but there was that small voice inside her telling her to do otherwise.

“I have other things to work on that are just as important for the company,” she bit her lip, “I’m sorry, maybe next time?”

Jimin slowly nodded his head, understandingly. Sungjae clapped his hands together and sat on his leather chair, “Eunji-ah, why don’t you bring him to his office?”

“And where would he be located—”

“In the right corner of the Elbow.” He cut her off, grinning. “You should know where that is.”

Eunji turned around, the article still in her hand. She turned around to see Jimin still standing there, looking dazed. She cleared for the umpth time, “are you coming?”

He snapped out of his trance and began to follow her down the halls of the office. She turned a sharp right, stopping after a few metres of more walking. She opened a door and walked in first.

The office was almost the same size as hers, just a bit smaller. It had a desk sitting in the middle of the room along with one leather chair sitting right in front of the sign that had ‘Park Jimin’ engraved on it. After staring at it for a moment, she began to wonder why she hadn’t noticed that sign when she came in to photocopy some papers. She smiled, trailing her fingers along the desk, before turning around, leaning against it.

“This is your office,” she welcomed him in, “it has your own coffee maker right in that corner with a few foam cups which I should probably restock you on. In that other corner, you have your own photocopier, the ink doesn’t run out fast, which is an advantage for you. Other than that, welcome to your new office.”

“Do you memorize everything contained in each office?” She shook her head.

“This used to be my office,” she flashed a small smile, “until Sungjae upgraded it.”

“Well, I should get settled,” he placed his things onto the carpet floor, fixing his glasses.

“And I should get going with my work,” she added, only to turn around and lean against the doorframe. “It’s nice meeting you, Jimin.”

“Eunji?”

Eunji looked at the doorway to see Minhee with a wide grin on her face. She led her into her office, heading towards her desk so that they can talk. As Eunji sat down, she watched Minhee fiddle with her long nails, only to glance at her with a smile.

“Oh, Minhee, do you need help with something?” The girl shrugged her shoulders, skipping to the chair and sitting on it. “Are you on your break?”

“Nope,” she popped the ‘p’, placing her hand underneath her chin. “Have you heard the gossip, lately?”

“Gossip?” Eunji repeated dumbfoundedly, earning a hearty laugh from the girl. “Since when did we have gossip around the office?”

“I’m guessing you haven’t checked your calendar yet.” She pointed towards the calendar that was sitting right in front of the face of her laptop.

Eunji furrowed her eyebrows in confusion, taking the calendar and blowing off the thick cover of dust that somehow piled up layer by layer. Minhee scrunched her nose in disgust.

“You clearly don’t use a calendar, don’t you?” Minhee raised an eyebrow.

“I use an agenda,” Eunji mumbled. “Goodness, just tell me what’s going on!”

“The 4th,” she began, yanking the calendar out of her hands, “which is coming up, almost three weeks from today.”

“And what happens on the 4th of May?” Eunji questioned her.

Minhee grabbed a marker from the cups filled with pens and pencils on Eunji’s desk. She bit the cap, pulling the marker out of it and circling the date. She then pursed her lips into a line and scribbled something down.

Minhee handed it to her, and Eunji stared at the date, the confused look on her face still not dissipating. “For a learner, you’re quite slow.”

“Centennial?” Eunji bit her lip, “what’s the Centennial?”

Minhee palmed her face, “god, Eunji, you’re so dense. The company is reaching its centennial!”

Eunji’s mouth hung open, only to burst out into loud laughter. She shook her head vigorously, thumping her forehead. “Sorry, I’m not myself today.”

“Is it because Mr. Yook didn’t bring you your daily dose of caffeine?” She , poking her cheek.

“Stop it,” she slapped her hand away, “nothing is going on between us.”

“Says the only one who gets free coffee every morning from her boss,” Minhee rolled her eyes.

“So, what about the centennial?” Eunji avoided the subject, trying to find something else to talk about.

“Whenever the company reaches a significant point in its history, we usually celebrate it with a themed celebration party.” She began to explain, rambling on and on, “there’s a word going around that this celebration party will be the biggest one we’ve ever had yet.”

“If that’s the case, maybe that’s why we’re having an urgent meeting today.” Eunji bit her lip, beginning to let her imagination run, thinking of all the possible themes the party could have. “Don’t you think?”

Minhee nodded her head, “there’s also a word going around saying that this party’s theme relates to love and matching.”

“Love and matching?”

“If I were you, I wouldn’t be surprised.” Minhee rolled her eyes for the fifteenth time, “Sungjae likes spicing up the parties with a theme of love. Our last party’s theme was love at first bite.”