2° : CARNATION

The meeting finally comes to the end. I follow Mr Bae as he exits the meeting hall. I bumped on his back when he stopped all of sudden. I take a peek of what's happening in front of him.


"Bae Jinyoung ~ You're grown up now. Such a pity that today is not your turn to do the presentation, right?" A tall guy with a big built body shakes hand with Mr Bae, teasing him.


"Ouh? Is that your secretary? Is she new?" He continues asking Mr Bae.


I bow to him right away when he approaches me. "Annyeonghaseyo.. I'm Mr Bae's secretary, Lee Hui." I politely introduce myself to him.


"She looks so pretty good for someone rude like you, Bae Jinyoung. This is the first time ever I saw such a beautiful and kind secretary after your 30th secretary resigned." He laughs at Mr Bae while caressing my hair.


"Hyung.. Stop it. Don't touch my secretary.." Mr Bae coldly tells the guy.


"Wae? Have you ever care about your secretary before? Should I remind you on how you treat your past secretaries? Treating them badly, scold them like there's no tomorrow and..."


"Stop! Daniel Hyung! I'm not the one that make each of them resigned! I know someone is behind of those things." Mr Bae suddenly yells at the him, taking me away from the scene.


"Mr Bae.. What's going on.. Wait.." I stutter as he suddenly pulls me into the elevator with him. Thank goodness there's no one inside.


The silence take over the elevator when both of us don't even say anything to each other. I can't help but looking at the ground instead. I lost one of my shoes that I wore when Mr Bae pulled me. I sigh as the shoes are still new.


When the elevator stops, Mr Bae gets out first before me and rushed into his room. I look at him with mixed feelings, following him to enter the office back again.


"Lee Hui.. What's wrong? Where's your other shoes?" Guanlin who is using the photocopy machine, looking at me worried.


"I'm fine.. It's just a long story." I answer him shortly, walking back to my desk.


I take a look at my left foot that lost it shoe. "Ouh? The pantyhose have torn up? I just bought it yesterday.." I whine when I see the miserable me after those commotion. I hide my face in my arms, leaning on my desk.


"... Lee Hui shi.." A voice calls me with some taps on my shoulder.


I take a peek at the speaker. ".. Ouh.. Mr Guanlin. Do you want me to call Mr Bae?"


Guanlin suddenly kneels down, giving me his flops that are bigger than my shoe size. "It's lunch time now. Let's eat together, also I'll buy you a pair of new shoes." He tells me with a smile.


I look at him in disbelief. ".. Mr Lai Guanlin, I'm fine with just wearing this flops. I have a few shoes at home.."


"If you said that then, let's go. The others are waiting for us." He winks, waiting for me to get up from my seat.


× × ×


Guanlin and I enter a Japanese styled ramen shop nearby. I follow him to a table where my others colleagues are. They smile, welcoming me to sit with them. I bow to them politely, taking a seat next to Guanlin. There's already a bowl of ramen in front of each person.


"Let's eat. I'm starving just to wait for those two." A cute guy with double eyelids whines about his hunger.


"Okay, hyung. I'm afraid that you will be like a Godzilla if we continue chatting." Guanlin chuckles.


I quietly giggle at both of them, taking the chopsticks to eat the ramen. I slurp the noodles into my mouth without even cooling it down. I spit out the noodles when my tongue burnt because of the heat.


"Hui... Are you okay? You should blow it first before gobble it up." Guanlin gives me a glass of cold water.


"Our new worker is so cute. How to not fall into her?" A girl who wears a pair of round spectacles with a name Nari on her name tag, smiles at me.


"But no one is cuter than me, Park Jihoon. Aegyo king." The cute guy looks at me with a sinister gaze, making me choke on my noodles.


"Hyung, you always make her startled." Guanlin pats my back a few times to help me digest down the food.


"Guanlin, why you're so caring about her? This is the first time ever I saw you acted like this." Jihoon asks Guanlin.


"Because Mr Bae didn't treat her well. Look at her condition after the meeting just now. She's too early to know all those shades of cruelness in Mr Bae." Guanlin explains.


I stop munching on my food, looking at him with a concerned look. "I'm fine with all of those things. I'm used to be treated that way." I tell him with a calm tone.


"But.. Lee Hui, what happened just now? I mean in the meeting." Nari asks me.


I hesitated to answer it at first but I prefer to share with them. ".. Mr Bae pulled me into the elevator in a rush after both of us met with someone who named Daniel. That's how my shoe lost."


"Mr Kang Daniel.. Heol! He was such a nightmare to Bae Jinyoung." Jihoon comments, closing his mouth when he realised that he called Mr Bae with his real name. "Mianhae.. He's younger than me. That's why."


I chuckle at his cute action. "A nightmare? Wae? Did something bad happened?" My curiosity grows up.


"There was a news where Mr Bae fought with Mr Kang. More badly was that they made a rule which involved trading in their secretaries. Unfortunately, Mr Bae lost the fight and lost his secretary. Also, Mr Kang already fired his secretary before the fight. So.. Mr Bae got nothing and nowadays he didn't even trust anyone, even though it's his secretary." Nari explains to me.


I freeze when I listened to her story. Will I be doing fine?


T B C

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